“…at 6 o’clock in the morning I’m already done with my hair; at 7 I’m fully dressed; – then I compose until 9 o’clock; from 9 to 1 o’clock I give lessons. – Then I Eat, unless I’m invited by someone who doesn’t eat lunch until 2 or 3 o’clock as, for instance, today and tomorrow at the Countess Zizi and Countess Thun.- I can’t get back to work before 5 or 6 o’clock – and quite often I can’t get back at all, because I have to be at a performance; if I can, I write until 9 o’clock. After that I go and visit my dear Konstanze; – however, our pleasure of seeing each other is often ruined by the galling remarks of her mother … but this is the reason why I want to liberate and rescue her as soon as possible. – I get home about half past 10 or at 11 o’clock at night; – it all depends on her mother’s darts or my ability to endure them. – Since I can’t depend on being able to compose in the evening, because of the concerts that are taking place, but also because of the uncertainty whether I might be summoned somewhere, it has become my habit to compose a little before going to bed, especially when I get home a bit earlier. – Often enough I go on writing until 1 o’clock – and then, of course, up again at 6 o’clock.”

– Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, in a letter to his sister, Maria, 13 February 1782.

Cited in: Spaethling, Robert (2000) Mozart’s Letters; Mozart’s Life. London: Faber and Faber, p.304.