What inspires an author or an artist?

For Jay McInerney, author of Bright Lights, Big City, it’s an Acheulean hand ax, a Stone Age tool that looks like a carved rock – easily held in the hand – the world’s first man-made object. McInerney has one from South Africa and notes that it is…

“…something I pick up when I am writing…when {my} own creative juices are clotting up…{I} toss it around when I am stuck.”

David Coleman in his article for the New York Times – Back to Basics, Real Basics – identifies the ax as one of the items from Neil MacGregor’s A History of the World in 100 Objects. Anthropologists note that making the ax ” took intelligence, skill, strength, and patience” – all attributes that could be helpful to a modern day writer.

Do you have an object that inspires you?

Related articles

• A History of the World in 100 Objects (nochargebookbunch.com)