“When I get an idea for a book, something appeals to me, it's usually a...” — Elmore Leonard Quote

“When I get an idea for a book, something appeals to me, it's usually a character. I'll see a picture of a female marshal in front of the courthouse in Miami and she's got a shotgun on her hip and it goes up on an angle. And she's good-looking. And I say, 'I've got to use her.'”

“I do have fun writing, and a long time ago, I told myself, 'You got to have fun at this, or it'll drive you nuts.'”

“I'm not aware of a cadence when writing, but I hear it after. I write in longhand, and that helps. You're closer to it, and you have to cross things out. You put a line through it, but it's still there. You might need it. When you erase a line on a computer, it's gone forever.”

“Every man of genius sees the world at a different angle from his fellows, and there is his tragedy.”

“I never planned to be a professional artist - I just want to be a sustainable artist. I guess they're the same thing if you look at them from a different angle.”

“I almost obsessively began reading about what was happening with the so-called Islamic State. But I couldn't find an angle on the story.”