Balance originality in life and work

The French novelist Gustave Flaubert advised Gertrude Tennant, a friend and patron who later edited his correspondence, “Be regular and orderly in your life, like a bourgeois, so that you may be violent and original in your work.”

Guides to creativity like The Artist’s Way emphasize the importance of regular, un-flashy production. Just show up. True creativity happens in quiet moments of work.