The best reason for putting anything down on paper is that one may then change it.

De Voto’s remark treats writing not as a final act of “getting it right,” but as a tool for revision. Putting words on paper externalizes thought: once an idea is fixed in visible form, its weaknesses, gaps, and excesses become easier to see and therefore to improve. The line also pushes back against perfectionism and writer’s block by reframing drafting as provisional—an initial version meant to be altered. In this view, the value of writing lies less in recording what one already knows than in enabling clearer thinking through iterative change.