From a great survey of how artists work. John Cage:
One day when I was studying with Schoenberg, he pointed out the eraser on his pencil and said, “This end is more important than the other.” After twenty years I learned to write directly in ink.
Recently, when David Tudor returned from Europe, he brought me a German pencil of modern make. It can carry any size of lead. Pressure on a shaft at the end of the holder frees the lead so that it can be retracted or extended or removed and another put in its place. A sharpener comes with the pencil. The sharpener offers not one but several possibilities. That is, one may choose the kind of point he wishes.
There is no eraser.
This article available online at:
http://www.theatlantic.com/daily-dish/archive/2008/08/thought-for-the-day/213185/
