A writer should get as much education as possible, but just going to school is not enough if it were, all owners of doctorates would be inspired writers.

Brooks distinguishes between formal schooling and the deeper formation a writer needs. Education—reading widely, learning craft, absorbing history and language—can enlarge a writer’s resources, but credentials alone cannot supply imagination, voice, or the disciplined attentiveness that turns experience into art. The jab at “owners of doctorates” underscores that inspiration and literary power are not guaranteed by academic attainment; they arise from a combination of talent, lived observation, empathy, and sustained practice. Implicitly, the quote also critiques credentialism: the authority to write well is earned on the page, not conferred by institutions.