Composition is a discipline; it forces us to think. If you want to “get in touch with your feelings,” fine — talk to yourself, we all do. But if you want to communicate with another thinking human being, get in touch with your thoughts. Put them in order; give them a purpose; use them to persuade, to instruct, to discover, to seduce.

William Safire (1929-2009) American author, columnist, journalist, speechwriter

Commencement Address, Syracuse University (13 May 1978)
    (Source)

Reprinted in On Language, "Commencement Address" (1980).