Kaustab Choudhury’s Reviews > Daily Rituals: How Artists Work > Status Update

Day 55: Marcel Proust. Yet another author whose works I haven't yet had the gall to pick up. "It almost seems as though a writer’s works, like the water in an artesian well, mount to a height which is in proportion to the depth to which suffering has penetrated his heart."

Day 54: James Joyce. An author whose works I haven't yet had the courage to pick up. "A man of small virtue, inclined to extravagance and alcoholism" is how the Irish novelist once described himself.

Day 53: Franz Kafka. One of the biggest names in literature, his life was not as illustrious as his achievements. He often had to work overtime, lived in a cramped apartment with family, and could only write at night. “Time is short, my strength is limited, the office is a horror, the apartment is noisy, and if a pleasant, straightforward life is not possible then one must try to wriggle through by subtle maneuvers.”

Day 52: Henry James. A man of habits, both short-term and long-term. For instance, he habitually started working on a new book the instant he was finished with the previous one.

Day 51: William James. James argued that we must make our nervous system our ally instead of enemy. This is to be done by forming "habits of order". “Recollect,” he noted, 'that only when habits of order are formed can we advance to really interesting fields of action—and consequently accumulate grain on grain of wilful choice like a very miser—never forgetting how one link dropped undoes an indefinite number."

Day 50: Immanuel Kant. One of the most important philosophers. Kant adopted what he called "a certain uniformity in the way of living and in
the matters about which I employ my mind". At the core of one’s character, he thought, were maxims: a handful of essential rules for living that, once formulated, should be followed for the rest of one’s life. But alas, we do not have a written list of Kant’s personal maxims.

Day 49: James Boswell. A moody biographer. On a good day, his "affairs are conducted with the greatest regularity and exactness". On a bad day, he woke in a foul mood, "dreary as a dromedary", convinced that "everything is insipid or everything is dark". There was little he could do to control these moods. He concludes: “Life has much uneasiness; that is certain. Always remember that, and it will never surprise you.”

Day 48: Samuel Johnson. Apparently, Johnson was a night dweller. He would be out until 2AM, and only thereafter would he start working (while the rest of London slept). "My reigning sin, to which perhaps many others are appendant, is waste of time, and general sluggishness" Yet, he added, he was temperamentally ill-equipped for the battle: "I myself have never persisted in any plan for two days together."

Day 47: Jonathan Edwards. “For each insight he wished to remember, he would pin a small piece of paper on a particular part of his clothes, which he would associate with the thought. When he returned home he would unpin these and write down each idea. At the ends of trips of several days, his clothes might be covered by quite a few of these slips of paper.”

Day 46: Margaret Mead. Once, Mead got news that a certain morning session had been postponed. She was furious. “How dare they? Do they realize what use I could have made of this time? Do they know I get up at five o’clock every morning to write a thousand words before breakfast? Why did nobody have the politeness to tell me this meeting had been rescheduled?” A sentiment some of us can very well relate to.