More on inspiration and work, contributed by others 

(LinkedIn -- Contemporary Music Professionals Group): 

"I sit down to the piano regularly at nine-o'clock in the morning and Mesdames les Muses have learned to be on time for that rendezvous," said by Pyotr Tchaikovsky and quoted in Schafer, British Composers in Interview (1963).  -- David Kosviner

Your Matisse citation about work and inspiration reminds me of the anecdote you probably have heard, about Paul Hindemith. A student at one of his Tanglewood seminars asked him 'What's your inspiration?' Hindemith wordlessly replied by raising his pencil in his hand -- indicating that the juices commence flowing in the physical (somatic) act of setting down notes on paper.  -- David Owens