Making a Killing: An Interview with Elmore Leonard

This interview focuses on Leonard's writing techniques, characterizations, and perceptions of real newspaper crime reporting. Many of Leonard's characters are patterned on crime reporters and other personalities featured in newspaper stories. The interviewer asks Leonard questions about his views on television cop shows, Hollywood's treatment of his own novels, and the crime fiction genre. The sense of reality about Leonard's work is reflected in the correspondence he receives from psychologists, lawyers, and inmates who find that his books hit the mark. Leonard commented that, as a child, news stories of outlaws and desperadoes robbing banks during the 1930's made a great impression on him. He does not believe there is any connection between the public's concern about crime and the growth of crime fiction.