Pick up any newspaper in the morning. Count the words in the lead sentences. There will be at least 25 in all of them: Guaranteed. The writers just want to tell you how many degrees they have from this college or that university.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Listen, here's the thing about an English degree - if you sat somebody down and asked them to make a list of the writers they admire over the last hundred years, see how many of them got a degree in English.
For the last year I've been at Stanford University as a student and I've had time to read the newspaper.
Everywhere I go, I'm asked if I think the universities stifle writers. My opinion is that they don't stifle enough of them. There's many a best seller that could have been prevented by a good teacher.
There are scores you have to write objectively without getting involved.
Stanford had no journalism program so I just learned by doing, effectively.
A number of American colleges are willing to pay a tempting amount to pinch and poke an author for a day or two.
I mean, if you lined up 100 writers, you'd get 100 different ways in which they write. There's no right way or wrong way to do it; it's whatever your process is.
For example, many colleges in their writing programs teach some of my work.
Young writers take themselves very seriously in college.
Newspapers are so boring. How can you read a newspaper that starts with a 51-word lead sentence?