Grease Points

"All this about inspiration. . . . Now look, I can't tell you anything about methods of work. . . . But I do think that all this about inspiration--I think writing is mainly work. Like a mechanic's job. A mechanic might as well say he was waiting for inspiration before he greased your car because if he didn't feel just right he'd miss a lot of the grease points, that he had to feel right up to it."

E.B. White. The New York Times. "The Author of One Man's Meat Talks About Writing and Country Living." 2 August 1942.

Keeping Early Hours

"If anybody has a job and starts at 9, there's no reason why they can't get up at 4:30 or 5 and write for a couple of hours, and give their employers their second-best effort of the day - which is what I did."

Mary Oliver. "A Solitary Walk." Christian Science Monitor. 9 December 1992.

Previously: Rise and Shine

Rise and Shine

"The best photographers go to bed early, and are up before sunrise. They may miss the evening light, but on the basis of photography's evidence the dawn appears to be even better."

John Szarkowski. Atget. Museum of Modern Art. 2000.

"No place is boring, if you've had a good night's sleep and have a pocket full of unexposed film."

Robert Adams. Darkroom & Creative Camera Techniques. May 1995.

Friedlander at Work

"At sixty-five I retired from everything except work."
Lee Friedlander

Richard Benson - Light Meters

"I sometimes go so far as to say that no great black and white photograph was made with a light meter, unless it was being used to hold up the sagging bellows of an old view camera."

Richard Benson. The Printed Picture.