Writing materials

Dolly Parton, talking to Melissa Block of NPR about songwriting:

Sometimes I get woke up in the middle of the night, because I often dream about singing songs. And I used to think I’d remember ’em, where I’ll be singing in a dream, and I know it’s not a song I know. And so I just try to keep a little tape recorder or notepad. But even on planes, I just write on a barf bag if I get an idea for a song. I just dig in my purse, try to find a pencil, and write on anything I can. That’s how all writers do it though, somebody that really writes all the time like I do.

Do you ever write with lipstick?

I’ve written with my lipstick, and I’ve written with an eyebrow pencil a lot.

Probably a little easier with an eyebrow pencil, I would think.

It’s a little better, a little easier.

More writing materials: Mercer Ellington said that in writing the non-autobiography Music Is My Mistress, his father Duke Ellington used hotel stationery, menus, and napkins.