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).