From “How I Write: The Secret Lives of Authors”

“It’s often said that the greatest thing about being a writer is that one is able to work anywhere. Why not do a book in Italy? Why not write a chapter in Marrakech? Yes this invitation to vagabondage skates over a critical dark feature of writing: the fear that one will never be able to write again, that one won’t be able to re-create the ingredients that inspire writing in just any old hotel room, that one is not wholly in command of what one is doing and hence needs to root oneself to whatever spot was conducive to a previously successful effort.

Ultimately, my dependence on my desk can be traced back to a troubling feature of my psychology: to the wilful, erratic nature of my creative self. This timid creature is absurdly easily disturbed, by a draught, a noise (any kind of clicking or low-level hissing sound), or even the wrong quality of light. There are always any number of excuses that arise for why it would be a better idea to sleep than to write. In this fragile state, I depend on my surroundings to assist the nobler sides of myself in their battle with their profane counterparts. ”

~ Alain de Botton

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