Stephen King once explained that, early in his career, he bought the desk of his dreams: a "massive oak slab" that he placed smack-dab in the middle of his study. By King's admission, he was a wreck at the time, often sitting drunk and unproductive for hours at the hulking desk. With sobriety and the perspective of age, he took a different approach. He chose to work at a modest desk, and instead of staring out from the middle of the room as he tried to write, he tucked the desk in a corner.
The reason why is a lesson to all of us: "Life isn't a support system for art," King said. "It's the other way around."
