"The knowledge of a foreign language can improve a writer's sense of the possible"

There was an interesting article in the Atlantic by Ta-Nehisi Coates early this month, about foreign language and its impact on a writer -- and what the writer produces, of course. I really only have competent knowledge of one language (damn you, Spanish! Return unto me!), but as he says in his article, he is early in his French studies and already feels/sees a difference in his creative processes.

The point is not that this was an especially great bit of writing. Right now its all just materiel, some of which will come to use, but most of which will either be disregard or remain as subtext--the iceberg under the water. The point is that I had access to new highways. 

I've had this happen a few times over the past couple of months. It's not even just in vocabulary, but in sentence structure. And I have to believe that if I explored languages with more distance from English, I'd see even more interesting things and I would see, not simply highways, but entire flight-paths. 

I'm not one for pronouncements. But it really seems like all writers should learn a second language.

My smattering of Linguistics also has an effect in my writing, especially (I think) in the rhythm of my sentences and in the speech patterns of characters. I'd imagine that anything you are interested in can give you access to "new highways" as long as it forces thinking from another angle or encourages thinking on another plane. Look at something from an architectural point of view, etc. So a foreign language isn't the only way to improve your "sense of the possible."

You should still learn one though.