A Quote by Elmore Leonard

The line of dialogue belongs to the character; the verb is the writer sticking his nose in.

Elmore Leonard

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Belongs Character Dialogue His Line Nose Sticking Verb Writer

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Elmore Leonard
American - Novelist
October 11, 1925 - August 20, 2013

Never use a verb other than "said" to carry dialogue... I once noticed Mary McCarthy ending a line of dialogue with "she asseverated" and had to stop reading and go to the dictionary.

Elmore Leonard

If love is truly a verb, if help is a verb, if forgiveness is a verb, if kindness is a verb, then you can do something about it.

Betty Eadie

There's a point I can get to where I start writing character and then through the dialogue, after all of this preparation, the thing starts to feel like it's a character developing through the dialogue. A lot of character traits do come from writing dialogue, but I have to be ready to do it.

Charlie Kaufman

The rule of thumb for a director or producer - which prevents them from just sticking their names on everything - is that you have to contribute substantially more than 50 percent of the character dialogue and story.

Harold Ramis

The straight line belongs to Man. The curved line belongs to God

Antonio Gaudi

Sometimes, as a comedian, a line will come to you, that is so beautiful, so perfect, that you think: I did not create this line. This line belongs to all of us. Surely this is a line of God

Russell Brand

Sometimes, as a comedian, a line will come to you, that is so beautiful, so perfect, that you think: I did not create this line. This line belongs to all of us. Surely this is a line of God.

Russell Brand

One line of dialogue that rings true reveals character in a way that pages of description can't.

Anne Lamott

I'm a really slow writer. What I need to start writing on any given day, is a kernel, a line of dialogue, anything I can sense concretely.

Diana Gabaldon

Never use a verb other than ‘said’ to carry dialogue.

Elmore Leonard

A writer is an eternal outsider, his nose pressed against whatever window on the other side of which he sees his material.

John Gregory Dunne

With a woman I try to photograph her beauty; with a man I try to show his character. Once I photographed a man with a big nose (Jimmy Durante), and emphasized his nose, and he was very pleased with the picture. That could not happen with a woman. The most intelligent woman will reject a portrait if it doesn't flatter her.

Philippe Halsman

After doing 'Life After Beth,' which I think had one line that wasn't scripted, everything was scripted so that it sounds natural, and I went to such great lengths to create dialogue and to come across the way that people wouldn't sound like they were on the nose.

Jeff Baena

It's Toby Jones playing Alfred Hitchcock, not Alfred Hitchcock. We all felt that his silhouette was crucial, so his nose and lips were crucial as well. We had to build it out a bit to get the silhouette. But, with my nose being so small within the proportion of my face, the first nose was too big. I felt like a nose on parade.

Toby Jones

Staying in with you is better than sticking things up my nose.

Lily Allen

I could never be the kind of writer who went to the set of the movie and fussed and fretted about, 'Oh, that dialogue's wrong,' or 'That character doesn't look like that.' That would be insufferable.

Alan Moore

A Quote by Elmore Leonard

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