Today the outlandish becomes routine overnight. The humorist is trying to say that it's still outlandish.

Nobody ever stopped reading E. B. White or V. S. Pritchett because the writing was too good.

There's not much to be said about the period except that most writers don't reach it soon enough.

There's no subject you don't have permission to write about. Students often avoid subjects close to their heart ... because they assume that their teachers will regard those topics as 'stupid.' No area of life is stupid to someone who takes it seriously. If you follow your affections you will write well and will engage your readers.

Be yourself and your readers will follow you anywhere. Try to commit an act of writing and they will jump overboard to get away.

The most important sentence in any article is the first one. If it doesn't induce the reader to proceed to the second sentence, your article is dead. And if the second sentence doesn't induce him to continue to the third sentence, it's equally dead.

Writing organizes and clarifies our thoughts. Writing is how we think our way into a subject and make it our own. Writing enables us to find out what we know-and what we don't know-about whatever we're trying to learn.