Inspiration does not exist: Camilo José Cela's lessons on discipline

Notes on giants - Number 15

Jun 14, 2025

🏷️ Categories: Writing, Habits, Creativity.

In 1976, during an interview on Spanish television, Camilo José Cela —who would later win the Nobel Prize— dropped a phrase that dismantles the entire romantic myth of artistic creation.

When the interviewer mentioned the word “inspiration,” Cela replied without hesitation:

“Inspiration does not exist.”

That’s what he believed. Inspiration does not exist, and that is the starting point of this article. If you’ve ever felt stuck in front of a blank page, this is for you. Let’s see why great creators don’t wait for inspiration…

They work.

Interviewer: You say that inspiration…
Cela: Does not exist. Inspiration… I’m not the one who says it doesn’t exist; it was Charles Baudelaire who said it when a lady asked him: “What is inspiration, master?” He answered: “Madam, inspiration is working every day.” Of course, I sit at the desk to write, and inspiration ends up coming.
One day, a man who thinks he knows everything told me: “Ah, you write like someone peeing.” And I said to him: “Excuse me, but it is terribly hard work for me to write; I write with great difficulty.”
Interviewer: Yet you have a very dense, very extensive body of work…
Cela: Because I work eight or ten hours every day. And no matter how dumb you are, in the end, something will come out.

We’ve been led to believe that the artist dives into creation after having the divine spark.

That inspiration is that magical moment that pushes you into action, to materialize that flash that appeared in the mind of the genius. But what if that moment never comes? What if that moment is the consequence of creating, not the cause?

Cela was clear: “Inspiration does not exist.”

And to leave no doubt, he quoted Baudelaire: “Inspiration is working every day.” Notice the order in which he describes his writing routine — it’s very important: “I sit at the writing desk, and inspiration ends up coming.”

In other words, inspiration is not a coincidence. It’s a consequence. It’s a result.

Despite being a renowned writer, he confessed: “It is terribly hard work for me to write.” And he didn’t say it with self-pity. He said it because, after so many years writing, he knew perfectly well that to find gold, you first have to chip away a lot of stone — a lot. Writing without fail every day was what led him to be who he was. It was a matter of work, not sporadic inspiration.

“I work eight or ten hours daily, every day,” he said.

There is no other secret.

Don’t settle for what you already know how to do

Here’s another brilliant excerpt where he talks about leaving the comfort zone.

Interviewer: Let’s talk about your latest experiments. Your last book, did it surprise you?
Cela: “Office of Darkness”? Yes, yes... It’s a difficult book. Following the previous path felt very easy, perhaps too easy. And in ease lies danger. That is, that path, which critics spoke well of, was very profitable and easy; I could have dictated it to a typist, but I thought: “No, one must approach things with difficulty,” and see how far one can go. In each of my novels, with greater or lesser success, I try to open new paths. And this book was a somersault in the void, but with great honesty.

There is a phrase of his we should frame: “In ease lies danger.”

Cela was clear. When something was easy for him, he suspected it. He said that following the paths of his previous works seemed “too easy,” so he decided to challenge himself. To write something difficult. Something that pushed him to the limit.

As he says: “One must open new paths.” That is the key to standing out.

In Office of Darkness 5, he did exactly that. He knew he could fail. He said: “This book has been a somersault in the void.” But he preferred to take risks rather than settle for what he already knew how to do. Because the true artist does not seek to repeat his winning formula.

He works to open new paths, innovate, be a pioneering creator.

And those paths that make you go down in history are only opened by hard, uncomfortable, sometimes even desperate work. Spending eight or ten hours a day writing perfectly illustrates what I mean...

That’s the ethic Cela cultivated: to write and raise the bar a little every day.

A matter of priorities

Cela clearly distinguished between two opposing versions of himself.

The solitary man who wrote.
The social man who had fun.

When he was at home, he was shut in. Literally. He spent hours in his studio facing the page, completely focused on his only task: writing. That daily focus was non-negotiable, it had to come before anything else, and he reserved as much time as possible every day for this task. It was his priority.

But there was a completely different version of him.

When he left the house, on the other hand, he did none of that. He devoted himself to full leisure and didn’t think for a single moment about writing. He spent time talking, traveling, eating with friends... In those moments, the priority was to completely leave focus behind.

He never mixed the two.

That sharp separation is the reason Cela could write eight or ten hours daily without depending on the luck of inspiration and without getting tired. He had designed his life around his craft. He switched from focal attention to diffuse, from one extreme to the other.

Interviewer: Do you feel very lonely?
Cela: Well, yes, when I’m at home, yes. I shut myself in. I have three studios, as you know. I go from one to the other and spend about eight or ten hours a day in that environment; you know because you’ve seen me there. Now, when I leave the house, I come to Madrid, or I go to Barcelona, or Paris, or wherever, I do nothing. I dedicate myself to talking with friends, eating...

He prioritized writing, then organized the rest of his life around it.

If you notice, it’s a simple life: write and everything else. And that is another great implicit lesson. Limit and prioritize — that is the only way to have time for any goal. To say “yes” to writing, you have to say “no” to many other things.

You can do anything, but not everything. Keep that clear.

Routine is the key

Cela is not alone. He was not an isolated case. He is part of a consistent pattern.

Kafka wrote at night, after working at an insurance company. He was exhausted, but wrote without waiting to feel enlightened.
Asimov wrote every morning without stopping. If creative block came, he switched to another project, but stopping was not an option.
Hemingway woke up at dawn and wrote until noon.
Murakami wakes at 4 a.m. and writes five hours every day.

Do you see the pattern? None of them wait for the muse.

All designed their life to write, no matter their circumstances, their lives... Kafka had no choice but to write at night after work. Murakami combined working at a bar during his early years with his writing.

The daily habit is the foundation of the artist, no matter what.

Magic, if it exists, comes afterward. It comes as a result of daily routine.

Want to write better? Write every day, even if you don’t know what to say.
Want to create brilliant ideas? Sit every day, even if you feel empty.

Routine creates the space for ideas to appear; if you don’t sit down, they will never show up.

✍️ Your turn: What small step or routine could you start today to move forward without waiting for that perfect moment?
💭 Quote of the day: “Inspiration is working every day.” — Charles Baudelaire.

See you next time! 👋

References 📚

Herralde, G. (2020, July 3). Camilo José Cela - In-depth interview [Video]. YouTube. Originally published January 16, 1976.