Jack Getze > Jack's Quotes

“Once you give up your integrity, the rest is a piece of cake.”
― J.R. Ewing

“My most important piece of advice to all you would-be writers: When you write, try to leave out all the parts readers skip.”
― Elmore Leonard, Elmore Leonard's 10 Rules of Writing

“Elmore Leonard's Ten Rules of Writing

1. 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.”
― Elmore Leonard

“It's my attempt to remain invisible, not distract the reader from the story with obvious writing.”
― Elmore Leonard, Elmore Leonard's 10 Rules of Writing

“When reading dies, the imagination soon follows.”
― Ronnie Ray Jenkins

“Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone you may still exist, but you have ceased to live.”
― Mark Twain

“You only have to forgive once. To resent, you have to do it all day, every day.”
― M.L Stedman

“You got to tell me the brave captain
Why are the wicked so strong?
How do the angels get to sleep
When the devil leaves the porch light on?”
― Tom Waits

“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.”
― George Orwell, 1984

“That woman speaks eighteen languages, and can't say 'No' in any of them.”
― Dorothy Parker, While Rome Burns

“Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place and I don't care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard ya hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done!”
― Sylvester Stallone, Rocky Balboa

“I still wanted to go home, but had to enter the tunnel and pray for the best. Every day, I discovered more disadvantages to being a strong woman, although the past week made me feel like Hercules in a burkha.

-Grace Madison, PhD”
― N.L.B. Horton, When Camels Fly

“He looked old, like a stranger. He was someone else, someone whom he could easily hate. (Tom Pitts, Piggyback)”
― Ken Bruen, Green Hell

“I owe them gods
a bottle of whiskey
and a bullet each”
― Elancharan Gunasekaran