The best Quotes by Elmore Leonard

It takes a long time to grow an old friend.

If work was a good thing, the rich would have it all and not let you do it.

I try to leave out the parts readers skip.

I would say just start writing. You've got to write every day. Copy someone that you like if you think that perhaps could become your sound, too. I did that with Hemingway, and I thought I was writing just like Hemingway. Then all of a sudden it occurred to me - he didn't have a sense of humor. I don't know anything he's written that's funny.

I don't have any of the modern electronics at all. I know the Internet would be a distraction. I would see things that interested me and never get back to writing.

There are cities that get by on their good looks, offer climate and scenery, views of mountains or oceans, rockbound or with palm trees. And there are cities like Detroit that have to work for a living.

You can leave Detroit, but it will never leave you.

There's cities that get by on their good looks. Detroit has to work for a living.

Detroit turned out to be heaven, but it also turned out to be hell.

Detroit, the heart of the country... I grew up on 10 Mile, 2 miles better than 8 Mile.

I come from Detroit where it's rough and I'm not a smooth talker.

Everything I've done in my career has started in and around Detroit, you know, the metro area and Michigan.

How long does it take to get from Louisiana to Alabama?
One Mississippi.

What's the loneliest place in all of Louisiana?
Bayou Self

Hurricane Katrina was the storm of the 21st century. It devastated an area the size of Great Britain. More than 1,800 Americans died. Three hundred thousand homes were destroyed. There was $96 billion in property damage. I served on the Louisiana Recovery Authority. I saw Congress write one big check and then skip town.

Black bandana, sweet Louisiana
Robbin' on a bank in the state of Indiana
She's a runner, rebel and a stunner
On her merry way sayin', 'Baby, what you gonna- ?'
Lookin' down the barrel of a hot metal .45
Just another way to survive

They say money can't buy happiness, but it can buy a flight to Louisiana - and that's pretty much the same thing.

Sometimes, strangers can become more like family than blood ever could.

It's a mystery of human chemistry and I don't understand it, some people, as far as their senses are concerned, just feel like home.

He's a better person when she's around, and isn't that what friends are for, to raise you up and keep you at your best?

Nobody can avoid falling in love. They might want to deny it, but friendship is probably the most common form of love.

Sometimes the right path is not the easiest one.

Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.

Making money isn't hard in itself. What's hard is to earn it doing something worth devoting one's life to.

If A is success in life, then A=x+y+z. Work is x, play is y and z is keeping your mouth shut.

Poetry, she thought, wasn't written to be analyzed, it was meant to inspire without reason, to touch without understanding.

A living poem had always been the words that came to mind when he tried to describe her to others.

Writing is something you do alone. Its a profession for introverts who want to tell you a story but don't want to make eye contact while doing it.

Trying to write about love is ultimately like trying to have a dictionary represent life. No matter how many words there are, there will never be enough.