The best way to learn to write is to study the work of the men and women who are doing the kind of writing you want to do.
A beautiful woman, Simone Weil said, seeing herself in the mirror, knows "This is I. " An ugly woman knows with equal certainty, "This is not I. " Maud knew this neat division represented an over-simplification. The doll-mask she saw had nothing to do with her, nothing.