Tracing Quotations
Elmore Leonard? Marty Asher? Leonore Fleischer? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: The funniest and most cogent writing advice I have ever heard was delivered by the best-selling author Elmore Leonard. According to folklore, an aspiring novelist implored Leonard to reveal the secret of his success, and he replied with something like this: I leave out the …
Continue reading “I Try To Leave Out the Parts that People Skip”
Raymond Chandler? James M. Cain? Alan Moore? William S. Burroughs? Larry Niven? Stephen King? Elmore Leonard? William Faulkner? Owen Sheers? Dear Quote Investigator: I have heard the following anecdote told about Raymond Chandler, James M. Cain, Stephen King, and Elmore Leonard. A journalist once visited the house of a popular author who had sold the …
Continue reading “They Haven’t Done Anything to My Book. It’s Right There on the Shelf”