"The times when I'm writing the most are when I'm reading a lot," Carl "Buffalo" Nichols says on today's podcast. And wow is this true: you cannot be a writer of any stripe unless you read.

Nichols likes to read voices that he cannot relate to. He mentions writers like Flannery O' Connor and H.L. Mencken, as well as books like A Clockwork Orange and A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. He didn't even like them all, but he still felt that hearing those voices makes him a better writer.

So on this episode we talk about how reading makes him a better songwriter, why being tired and cranky makes him a good editor, and why he likes to stop writing when he knows he still has something left in the tank.

Nichols' latest album The Fatalist is out now on Fat Possum Records.