Barry Lopez was trying to write on a plane. The man sitting next to him said his daughter wanted to be a writer and asked if Lopez had any advice. Lopez did.
Three things: First, a writer should read. Third, she should travel. In between was this:
Second, I said, tell your daughter that she can learn a great deal about writing by reading and studying books about grammar and the organization of ideas, but if that she wishes to write well she will have to become someone.
I gave a version of that bit of advice to young reporters. I think, as a rule, we try to teach students to do things before we try to help them be somebody. I think a liberal arts education helps. I think a newspaper written and edited by people who’ve read some literature, philosophy, history and science and who have thought about these things is likely to be better than a newspaper written by people who haven’t. I think that’s true of almost every enterprise, including medical practices.
I wish people were not in such a rush to finish their education.
Sometimes, just sitting with a young reporter, we’d talk about what a good education might look like and whether we might improve our own by spending time at the library.
• Source: Barry Lopez, About This Life; New York: Vintage Books, 1999, p. 14.
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