Communication Quote by Elmore Leonard

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

— Elmore Leonard

James Blish told me I had the worst case of "said bookism" (that is, using every word except said to indicate dialogue). He told…

— Anne McCaffrey

Don't be scared of 'said.' Writers sometimes go looking for alternatives because they worry that 'he said' and 'she said' will feel repetitive if…

— Tana French

I have difficulty putting words in peoples' mouths. The best dialogue is very, very thin dialogue; you let people improvise and then basically you…

— Steve McQueen

What a script says that isn't dialogue is as important as the spoken word.

— Vanessa Redgrave

“Finding no quotation on point, she improvised: "I've always found that elaborate courtesy makes most people behave.”

— Susan Rieger

Dialogue is not just quotation. It is grimaces, pauses, adjustments of blouse buttons, doodles on a napkin, and crossings of legs

— Jerome Stern

I find that dialogue is bad in most scripts. I just think there are very few writers that can capture the natural way people…

— Stephen Dorff

Dialogue is a lean language in which every word counts.

— Sol Stein

“But the talk of dialogue involves the work of knowing, acknowledging the other, of shaping speech toward him, for her. It is neither done…

— Walter Wangerin Jr

“The only thing better than great dialogue is the ability to say everything with no dialogue at all.”

— Adam Levenberg

Sometimes, what's not said is just as important to the writing as what is said. As a writer, we have our voices heard. I…

— Joel Edgerton