Pound (that rat) says somewhere that it is incredible to him that so many "poets" simply pick up a pen and start writing verse and call it poetry, while a would-be pianist knows full well how necessary it is to master scales and thousands of exercises before making music worth of the name. Playing scales, for a writer, means reading. Is there any real writing that has no reading behind it? I don't think so.
—David Remnick

Posted on October 15, 2002 at 8:41 PM

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