Even today, the idea of the "Muse" who inspires you as a writer is alive and well! I found this quote from the great novelist Isabel Allende (author of The House of the Spirits) via Chitra Divakaruni's Twitter stream (she is the author of Palace of Illusions which is on the book list for Indian Epics):
Show up, show up, show up,
and after a while the Muse shows up, too.
— Isabel Allende