Daily Routines of Notable Persons

December 9, 2008 2:41 PM

Daily Routines features how writers, artists, statesmen, and others go about their day.

Kafka was a night owl, Kant woke early, Issac Asimov was not a folyack. Marx's smoking got to him; George Bush eats fast, but exercises often; Napoleon Bonaparte enjoyed chess. Haruki Murakami enters a deep state of mind, Vladimir Nabokov creams his mail, Roald Dahl kept up his farm. Emily Post stayed in bed, Alice Munro had little time, Marie Geoffrin dined with the king. Paul Erdös drugged himself up.

Routines are collected from books, newspapers, magazines, and websites. [via Slate]

posted by Korou (12 comments total)

Also: How We Work (condensed list).
posted by Korou at 2:51 PM on December 9, 2008

Early in the morning,
Just as day is dawning,
He picks up all the letters in his van.
All the birds are singing,
The day is just beginning,
Pat feels he's a really happy man.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 2:54 PM on December 9, 2008

Since this seems to interest people, we'd always see Toni Morrison having lunch at Lahiere's.
posted by Zambrano at 3:03 PM on December 9, 2008

I didn't have to click on this to know Cheney wasn't gonna be included:

"Cheney lives with [CLASSIFIED] in [CLASSIFIED], where he [CLASSIFIED]. Cheney is [CLASSIFIED] by [CLASSIFIED]. He [CLASSIFIED], reads [CLASSIFIED], [CLASSIFIED] for [CLASSIFIED] minutes, and [CLASSIFIED]. After lunch, he [CLASSIFIED], [CLASSIFIED], and [CLASSIFIED] from [CLASSIFIED] and [CLASSIFIED]. In [CLASSIFIED], he likes to read [CLASSIFIED], whose [CLASSIFIED]. But then all the [CLASSIFIED] — including the [CLASSIFIED] — have an [CLASSIFIED]. [CLASSIFIED] are at [CLASSIFIED] (Cheney [CLASSIFIED] [CLASSIFIED]); a [CLASSIFIED] follows, then a [CLASSIFIED] with the [CLASSIFIED]. Cheney doesn’t [CLASSIFIED] and is [CLASSIFIED] by [CLASSIFIED]."
posted by The Card Cheat at 3:17 PM on December 9, 2008 [4 favorites]

Gosh, if they ever did one of these of me it would look like this:

Astro Zombie sometimes woke up at seven in the morning, sometimes much later. Whatever time he woke, he immidiately ran to his computer, usually in his undergaments, to check his email and make a few comments to online forums, as well as a few posts to the forum he edited. Some hours later, he would realize he hadn't eaten and scrounge a snack from the kitchen. At noon, or thereabout, he would remember he was supposed to be at work, and would shower and dress very quickly and spend needless minutes searching for his keys, which were almost always under his clothes from the previous evening. At work, he would spend a lot of time in online forums and checking links suggested by his RSS reader and friends on Twitter, and would sometimes actually do some of the work assigned to him. Evenings were spent watchign terrible movies, or playing video games, or, on occasion, going to the theater, the reviewing of which was something he was supposed to do for pay. Upon returning home, he would go to his computer again, and again to the online forums, until four or five in the morning. He would takes naps, too, sometimes; nobody could be sure when the mood to nap would strike, but, when it did, he found it irresitable. Somehow, he also found time to write. He also drank quite a lot.
posted by Astro Zombie at 3:24 PM on December 9, 2008 [2 favorites]

I like the category "Drug Users." Though it seems like that kind of day would be predictable.

I wish it would have included Pol Pot though. "Death death death death death. Coffee break. Death death death death death. Lunch. Death death death death death death. Afternoon tea."
posted by grapefruitmoon at 3:41 PM on December 9, 2008

Definitely Best of the Web. Thank you.
posted by l33tpolicywonk at 3:44 PM on December 9, 2008

Not sure if it's the fact that this sort of thing already fascinates me (I've read lots of those "Writers On Writing" type books, and love those biographical videos about writers), but I wish more blogs were like this one. Thanks.
posted by Rykey at 4:54 PM on December 9, 2008

a slave woke Kant

Right so this is all interesting, but as far as I know Kant did not own slaves. Slavery may have been legal in Prussia at the time, in some sense, but there was never really a slave economy as in the Southern US. At any rate, Kant was woken by a servant, who was an employee rather than a chattel, as far as I can tell from online reading (here is a bio of the servant, Martin Lampe).

I think the distinction between slaves and servants is pretty important, and I would have been sensationalized to learn Kant owned slaves.
posted by grobstein at 5:10 PM on December 9, 2008 [1 favorite]

I love things like this, probably because I largely have no idea how I go about my day. Big fan of Writers' Rooms as well, likely because half the time I can't see mine.
posted by regicide is good for you at 5:39 PM on December 9, 2008 [1 favorite]

grobstein: thanks for pointing that out.
posted by Korou at 6:34 PM on December 9, 2008

F. Scott Fizgerald, when trying to cut on down his drinking to write, wrote down his "austerity" measures, which included 20 beers and cocktails. Of course.

The writers of Penny-Arcade have an official "office" to discuss the comic and other projects.

Another writer, I want to say Ira Levin, would get up, put on a suit and briefcase, kiss his wife, and then go into the garage and take off his suit and smoke pot and drink and work on current ideas.

Umbeto Ecco: "Nature abhors pants."

Girl I know had to have several "I'M JUST WRITING NOW!" points in the year where she went ot a shack and did whatever for a month after having talked about al the ideas for weeks on end.

The only other writer I know personally would also put on a suit and tie and go to a writing office. It was very good for brainstorming with people, but he mostly used it to fuck his mistress.

My getting up at 2 A/M and writing down ideas and sketching out scenes til 6am have caused fights with the boyfriend. Sometimes vicious fights.

Routines are such a bitch.
posted by The Whelk at 7:27 PM on December 9, 2008 [3 favorites]