Knowing how to hunt

...it must be noted that the poet is never inspired, if by that one means that inspiration is a function of humor, of temperature, of political circumstances, of subjective chance, or of the subconscious. The poet is never inspired, because he is the master of that which appears to others as inspiration. He does not wait for inspiration to fall out of the heavens on him like roast ortolans. He knows how to hunt, and lives by the incontestable proverb, "God helps them that help themselves." He is never inspired because he is unceasingly inspired, because the powers of poetry are always at his disposition, subjected to his will, submissive to his own activity...

Raymond Queneau from his Le Voyage en Grece. Quoted in Oulipo: A Primer of Potential Literature. Ed Warren F. Motte Jr. Normal, IL: Dalkey Archive Press, 1986. Page 43.

Nicely put. And almost exactly contrary to most of what we hear about writing and how it comes about. Seems to me that if we want to argue in favor of teaching creative writing, we might begin with beliefs about the creative process similar to Queneau's. We ought not to be "nurturing" our students, but teaching them how to hunt.