'Bookselling Made a Writer Out of Me'

"Bookselling made a writer out of me. Before I got a job at a bookstore, I would sometimes poke around the edges of being a creative writer--I wrote little essays for zines my friends published, and I liked to come up with elaborate fake histories for bands I was associated with in college. 
I liked books and I liked to read. But being a bookseller moved me from a casual to a professional interest in books, so it meant I needed to read a lot more, and a lot of contemporary work. It gave me a sense of the landscape, and where I might fit into it. (And that I actually might fit into it.) It plugged me into the community of writers and readers. And it gave me access to writers who helped me evolve my writing."

--Matthew Simmons, author of Happy Rock (Dark Coast Press), in an interview with Volume 1 Brooklyn
via Shelf Awareness