How Robert Plant keeps a notebook

Adam gathers bits about notebooks from Robert Plant, poet Sharon Olds, artist Roni Horn, and author Column McCann.

Robert Plant: “I write all the time. I carry a book with me. The front side of the book has got details and reminders of what I’ve got to do. And then I flip the book over and anything that I see or feel or find slightly ironic or ridiculous or funny or really sad I just write them down. So my imagination’s like a tinderbox. Suddenly I hear another element or another contribution within whatever zone that I’m in. And it just lights me up.” via Desert Island Discs

Robert Plant’s notebook.

Sharon Olds on her typical working day: It is morning, you have a spiral notebook from the grocery store – wide-ruled – and a medium ballpoint pen and you are looking out of the window. If you are in New Hampshire, you see a pond and sky and woods and in New York City you see the Hudson river. You may be describing what you are looking at. Or writing a diary. I do drawings and put stickers in: birds, reptiles and dinosaurs. The sky. Orion. All that. via The Guardian

Roni Horn on how she captures time:  “I like the word ‘log’ as opposed to ‘diary’ or journal.’ I’m not telling you what I’m doing every day. But when you add all of these bits together, you get my sensibility.” via T: The New York Times Style Magazine

Column McCann on giving the book he gives as a gift: “To a student, an empty Moleskine notebook. To a loved one, a Moleskine with a poem inside.” via The Guardian

Previously: How an architect, journalist, and arguably the greatest spy and crime novelists keep a notebook.