I have long noticed that I often get an inspiration to write something only a short while after I light a cigar. As I smoke at most once a day, the urge to write often strikes me as an interruption of something quite wonderful. I associate cigar smoking with quiet meditation. In my mind, even writing is an inferior activity by comparison. Thus it has taken me a long while to realize that the connection between smoking and writing is actually quite straightforward. Nicotine opens the blood vessels, and the brain gets more oxygen than previously. The inspiration to write something follows directly from this physiological change. Not only is it not haphazard, it is directly produced by the nicotine surge. No prize for guessing when I lit my last cigar.