Elmore Leonard on writing

Elmore Leonard, who has been described by some as the dean of American crime authors, discussed his writing style:

"The way I work, I make it up as I go along. And I start with a character, then I add a character. ... I'm never sure until I get to about page 100, what's going to happen and who the main character is. ... I rewrite as I go along. I rewrite all the time. That's what writing is: rewriting."

"If you'll notice, in the book, the point of view switches around quite a bit. That's why I will never write in first person -- be stuck with that -- one point of view."

"I've been writing in longhand all my life. Well, 50 years, since I started. I'll write in longhand, then if I run out of gas, I'll type it. So then I'll type it as I go along. Then I give it to one of my daughters, who's been typing my stuff for 25 years. And she does it, of course, on a computer. It's a matter of sticking to my style and trying to ... make it as interesting as possible."

"The style is writing in scenes, always from the point of view of a character, so that the sound -- and I'm very aware of sound -- of the writing is the character's sound. Sometimes, that's not that obvious. But it's there."