Zach WeinersmithOne thing that interests me about the lives of the great writers is there really is almost no thru-line. No map to destination. Some great works are by the young, some by the old. Some are into the business end of things, some are bohemians. Some are nice some are shitheads. Etc.
In all the reading I've done the one thing I've never found an exception to is this: all the really great writers are extremely well-read. Even comedians are wild avant-garde types still read widely and constantly. I don't know of any great writer who defies this.
This is part of why when people ask me about how to improve writing, my diagnosis is almost always that you're not reading enough. Like often scicomm enthusiasts expect to write like Sagan while only reading modern sci fi. It won't work.
(this is necessary, though perhaps not sufficient, unfortunately)