Daily Rituals by Mason Currey is a very interesting book about artists’ routines in creating work.

Conclusion: discipline is everything. And dedication. And perseverance. See also Ryan Holiday’s The Obstacle is the Way.

Francis Bacon: chaos and total dedication.

Simone de Beauvoir: total asceticism.

Kierkegaard: coffee and sugar, walking, writing.

Benjamin Franklin: air bath (meditation?).

Anthony Trollope: writing 3 hours a day for work. Copied his mother here, who wrote for 4 hours before making breakfast.

Toulouse Lautrec: booze.

Thomas Mann: family man with a strict schedule for writing.

Mahler: schedule. Moody and lonely boy.

Matisse , Margaret Mead: always working.

Gertrude Stein: what a spoiled baby she is.

Ann Beatty: can only write if she’s really inspired.

Murakami: schedule, no social life.

William James: automate everything, leave yourself free for better activities.

James Joyce: estimates that it took him 20000 hours to write Ulysses.

Beckett made his depression work for him.

Sartre: regime and pills, cigarettes, alcohol.

Graham Greene: wrote 2 books at once. On pills.

Umberto Eco: can write anywhere, anytime.

David Lynch: sugar.

Paul Erdős: a machine that turns coffee into scaffolding.

Abramovic: rigorous.

Twyla Tharpe: asocial = procreative.

Bernard Malamud: conclusion: in the end, everyone learns their own best way. The real mystery to crack is you.