“Temperamentally, I set great store by orderliness for inspiration. I like a clean kitchen, a well-made bed, and a tidy desk before I start writing. Sometimes the orderliness gets sinister—not only because of the oft-made charge of procrastination, but also because once everything is collected, clean, and cheerful, a space suddenly appears for the spirit to wilt, the intelligence to become disenchanted. But philosophically, I tend to hold to it. As Gustave Flaubert advises: ‘Be well-ordered in your life, and as ordinary as a bourgeois, in order to be violent and original in your work.’ I write in bursts, and the rest of the time I’m filling the well. I read widely, deeply, and indiscriminately. I watch lots of movies, I clean, I feel at the mercy of my longings (though I take notes), I listen to music, I daydream, I make lists, but mostly I read. Suddenly I’ll want to be clear about something, and then I know I’m itching to write. Part of being well-ordered for me is simply to wake up very early, make the coffee (I enjoy this so much), and stay at my desk until I feel a little freedom from vagueness.”
—Sandra Lim, author of The Wilderness (Norton, 2014)