Art & Creativity Quote by Peter De Vries

The line lands like a wink at the romantic cult of “inspiration,” then quietly dismantles it. De Vries frames creativity as something artists claim arrives like weather, but he insists it can be scheduled like a dentist appointment. The joke works because it preserves the glamour of being “inspired” while exposing the machinery underneath: he’s not denying inspiration; he’s domesticating it.

The subtext is a refusal of the excuse. If inspiration is a rare visitor, the writer can’t be blamed for missed deadlines or thin output. De Vries, a novelist with a comic sensibility, turns that alibi into a punchline. “I see to it” implies agency and craft, a kind of self-managed enchantment. He’s telling you that the muse isn’t a capricious goddess; she’s an employee who shows up when you do.

There’s also a faint jab at literary posturing. By specifying nine o’clock, he punctures the image of the nocturnal genius fueled by angst and cigarettes. This is workday discipline: coffee, desk, pages. Coming from a mid-century American novelist who wrote for a living (and alongside magazine culture’s deadlines), the quote reads like a professional ethic disguised as humor.

It’s comforting and unsentimental at once: creativity can be cultivated, but only if you’re willing to treat it less like a lightning strike and more like a practice. The wit isn’t just decorative; it’s a philosophy of labor wearing a comedian’s mask.