“When traveling, I usually keep a notebook: when home at my desk, the notebook serves mainly to remind me how little I saw at the time, or rather how I was noticing the wrong things. But the notes do spur memories, and it's the memories I trust. The wine stain on the page may tell me more than the words there, which usually strike me as hopelessly inadequate.” MayLittlesHomeMemoriesSawsPagesWineNotesStrikesDesksNotebookInadequateWrong ThingsNoticingStainsSpurs Author:Jonathan Raban
“You know, I never knew if I had any talent when I started in this business. My first job was being a page at The Tonight Show. I saw Jack Paar come out one night and sit on the edge of his desk and talk about what hed done the night before. I thought, I can do that! I used to do that on a street corner in the Bronx with all my buddies.” IfsKnowsFirstsI CanDoneShowsJobsUsedNightCan DoSawsStreetsTalentPagesEdgesCornersTonightDesksBuddyOne NightBronxStreet Corners Author:Regis Philbin
“I am a highly disciplined person. I get up at seven every morning and, still in my pajamas, sit down at my desk where my checkered ring binders and my fountain pen are ready for use. I try to write two pages every day.” WritingTryingPersonsStillsTwoUseMorningReadyPagesSevenRingsGet UpPensEvery MorningDesksFountainPajamasFountain PensBindersCheckered Author:Orhan Pamuk
“I have never found, in anything outside of the four walls of my study, an enjoyment equal to sitting at my writing desk with a clean page, a new theme, and a mind awake.” WritingMindFoundStudyFourWallEqualPagesSittingCleanAwakeEnjoymentThemeDesksFour Walls Book:Irving's Works Source: Irving's Works
“Even when I'm just sitting at my desk, I have to get up every twenty minutes or so and walk around, walk around, walk around, and then I can go back to the page. I can't just sit there for hours at a time. Language comes out of the body as much as the mind.” MindI CanBodyLanguageHoursWalksMinutesPagesSittingTwentiesGet UpDesks Author:Paul Auster
“Suppose within each book there is another book, and within every letter on every page another volume constantly unfolding; but these volumes take no space on the desk. Suppose knowledge could be reduced to a quintessence, held within a picture, a sign, held within a place which is no place. Suppose the human skull were to become capacious, spaces opening inside it, humming chambers like beehives.” HumansBookSpacePagesLettersOpeningVolumeDesksChamberSkullsUnfoldingHummingQuintessenceBeehives Author:Hilary Mantel
“I missed the sound of her shuffling her homework while I listened to music on her bed. I missed the cold of her feet against my legs when she climbed into bed. I missed the shape of her shadow where it fell across the page of my book. I missed the smell of her hair and the sound of her breath and my Rilke on her nightstand and her wet towel thrown over the back of her desk chair. It felt like I should be sated after having a whole day with her, but it just made me miss her more.” ShouldMadeBookWholeFeltSoundFeetMissingHairColdShapesBedPagesShadowBreathsLegsSmellThrownChairsWetDesksHomeworkTowelsShufflingSated Book:Linger Source: Linger