“You never know what somebody might tell you,' Chris said, 'when they think you're somebody else.”

“when you're really cute that's all you have to be, you make a career out of it. someone asks you what you do, you say, 'nothing. i'm cute.”

“You thinkin bout the time I shot you and you rose from the dead? It only happens once in your life." He turned to Carol again and she said:"Were you actually aiming at his hat?""I hit it didn't I?”

“Elmore Leonard's Ten Rules of Writing1. Never open a book with weather.2. Avoid prologues.3. Never use a verb other than "said" to carry dialogue.4. Never use an adverb to modify the verb "said”…he admonished gravely.5. Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose. 6. Never use the words "suddenly" or "all hell broke loose."7. Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.8. Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.9. Don't go into great detail describing places and things.10. Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.My most important rule is one that sums up the 10.If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.”

“There were a lot of terms you had to learn, as opposed to the shylock business where all you had to know how to say was 'Give me the fuckin money.”

“Don't go into great detail describing places and things, unless you're ­Margaret Atwood and can paint scenes with language. You don't want descriptions that bring the action, the flow of the story, to a standstill.”

“My most important piece of advice to all you would-be writers: When you write, try to leave out all the parts readers skip.”