How important is reading to a writer?

How important is reading to a writer?

Russell Celyn Jones (Published writer. Professor of Creative Writing and Director of the MA Programme at Birkbeck College (University of London).) gives expert video advice on: What advice do you have for writers just starting out?; What cautions do you have for wannabe writers?; Is it true that 'everyone has a novel in them'? and more...

If you don't read, how can you expect other people to read you. Because that's where ideas come from. Fiction or novels aren't acts of nature. They're not just instinctive things to do. It's a learned craft, writing fiction. And the best way of learning a craft is to study other writers. All great writers have read other people very thoroughly and find ways of being inspired by other writers in their own work.