"Something that also taught me how to write that I tell people — I’ve never been a writing teacher, but I say it because it was so helpful to me when I started doing it – is to buy a notebook or a spiral-bound book or something and get a ball-point pen of your choice. And sure people say, “You’ve got to carry around a notebook and jot down ideas” and that is OK, and I adapted that by writing on a folded-up piece of paper and carry it around in my pocket – that’s one thing. But this is different; if you’re reading along and you come to something that’s really beautiful, that really stops you in the eye with its prose, you see it’s true, then I’ll stop or make a note to stop later and open the notebook and copy it out, in quotation marks, of course, and write down – copy that out word for word, with full punctuation, in handwriting."
Nicholson Baker on writing, from Salon.
This is so many things that I've been thinking about lately, but also, with significant technological differences, how I interact with clothing in literature, and the foundation upon which this online practice is built. I do write non-costume related things down, by hand, with quotation marks and a small citation, in another book. But I love the commonplace book reference! I just have to remember to flip back through it now and then, one of the great pleasures and intentions of keeping one in the first place.