Do you rely on inspiration or discipline to make work?

Originally asked

The Creative Independent, to working artists, its interview series

A repeated Creative Independent tension, asked as inspiration, muse, discipline, ritual, or the requirement to show up.

You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.

Recorded Jonathan Lethem said elsewhere, not written here
So, yes, it is very hard work, and there are days where there’s something I have to do in the book, something I have to learn or put myself and the characters through that I am… That makes me fearful or sorrowful. But I do think also that this aspect of writing is over reported at the expense of the pleasurable aspect as well. If writers didn’t love to be in this space between themselves and their language, they probably wouldn’t do it. You’d give up.

The Talks, published interview, 27 March 2019 source ↗

Others on this question

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David Hare Playwright and screenwriter
One day you write nothing, the next you write eight pages. It’s not in your hands.
Recorded My writing day, The Guardian, 4 November 2017 source ↗
François Ozon Film director and screenwriter
It’s a long journey, you know. I really believe in the work of the unconscious. You have an idea, you think about it. You dream about it. But, for me, it’s my way of working, it depends on writing of course. I don’t need to go every day in front of my computer and write something. It’s always a surprise. In the moment, it’s a necessity. You need to write, so you write a thing.
Recorded Filmmaker Magazine, March 2013 source ↗
László Krasznahorkai Novelist; Nobel laureate in literature
The bitterness. I am very sad if I think of the status of the world now. This is my deepest inspiration. This could be also an inspiration for the next generation or generations in literature. Inspiration to give something for the next generation, somehow to survive this time because these are very, very dark times and we need much more power in us to survive this time than before.
Recorded Nobel Prize telephone interview with Jenny Rydén, published by Nobel Prize Outreach, The Nobel Prize, 9 October 2025 source ↗

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