I write when I’m inspired, and I see to it that I’m inspired at nine o’clock every morning.

Peter De Vries (1910–1993), an American novelist and longtime humor columnist for The New Yorker, was frequently asked about “inspiration” and the writer’s routine. This quip—often repeated in interviews and quotation anthologies—captures his comic deflation of the romantic myth that writing depends on unpredictable muse-like visitations. Instead, De Vries aligns himself with the professional, workmanlike tradition of authors who keep fixed hours and treat creativity as something summoned by discipline. The line is typically presented as a standalone remark rather than tied to a particular novel, suggesting it circulated as an interview-style aphorism about craft and daily practice.

The joke turns on redefining “inspiration” as something scheduled. De Vries implies that waiting passively for a mood is a form of procrastination; the serious writer shows up at the desk and makes conditions in which inspiration is likely to occur. The nine o’clock detail underscores regularity and professionalism, suggesting that creativity is less a lightning bolt than a habit cultivated through routine. At the same time, the line preserves the language of inspiration—he still “writes when inspired”—but wryly reveals that the muse can be managed. The remark has become a compact defense of discipline as the engine of artistic productivity.