Does a particular object, picture, document or procedure inspire you to write?  

Does a particular object, picture, document or procedure inspire you to write?

Film director, screenwriter and playwright Neil LaBute draws inspiration from listening to Frank Sinatra's album, "In the Wee Small Hours." Even the cover art arouses his desire to write.

Jonathan Franzen, author of "The Corrections," finds that his office chair -- an old, squeaky model he scavenged off the street in the early 80s -- can inspire him to press forward with his writing.

The novelist Will Self has an intricate system of compiling information: he writes ideas, snippets of dialogue, and themes on Post-it notes; he then organizes them into scrapbooks and they eventually turn into books.

How about you? Are there objects that you hold in high esteem that function as a muse for your writing? How about systems, procedures, and regimens? Do you have any? What serves as a source of inspiration for your writing?