Read

“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write. If it is good, you’ll find out. If it’s not, throw it out the window.” —William Faulkner

Can we dispense with telling young writers that the key to writing well is more writing? As if bad writing, and writing badly, will suddenly give way to good writing. The key to good writing (and good talking, and good persuading) is good reading.

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