Are outlinks an essential element for onsite SEO?

[Nick_Johansson]

I recently read the blog post by Steve Webb about performing a SEO Audit (http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-to-perform-the-worlds-greatest-seo-audit). In the article he mentions that it's important to have outlinks to high-quality websites. So my questions is if this is an essential element of onsite SEO?

[TomRayner]

I don't think it's an essential part for onsite.  I actually interpreted Steve's words to mean "If you are going to outlink, make sure you outlink to a reputable/high authority website".  So, my interpretation is that you do not have to outlink by any means, but if you do (say if you wanted to cite a source), make sure you outlink to a good quality website.

That's only my interpretation though, so would like to hear others' as well.