--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: The desk thing is a problem for me. The…" description: "\"The desk thing is a problem for me. The ideal one would be vast and perfectly clear. Yet the bane of the biographical existence is paper; if you're 'an..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9a7/stacy-schiff-7881_art_the-desk-thing-is-a-problem-for-me-the-i_1673298.png" --- # The desk thing is a problem for me. The ideal one would be… ![“The desk thing is a problem for me. The ideal one would be vast and perfectly clear. Yet the bane of the biographical existence is paper; if you're 'an artist under oath' you're writing from a mountain of documentation.” quote by Stacy Schiff](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9a7/stacy-schiff-7881_art_the-desk-thing-is-a-problem-for-me-the-i_1673298.png) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9a7/stacy-schiff-7881_art_the-desk-thing-is-a-problem-for-me-the-i_1673298.png) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9a7/stacy-schiff-7881_art_the-desk-thing-is-a-problem-for-me-the-i_1673298.png) > “The desk thing is a problem for me. The ideal one would be vast and perfectly clear. Yet the bane of the biographical existence is paper; if you're 'an artist under oath' you're writing from a mountain of documentation.” [Stacy Schiff](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/stacy-schiff/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Artists struggle with paperwork, which can feel overwhelming and hinder creativity. **In simple terms:** Paperwork overwhelms artists, limiting creative flow. Key Takeaway Simplify documentation to free creative energy. Themes creativity bureaucracy artist challenges Mood reflective inspirational Type creative practical When to use this quote - studio management - grant applications - exhibition planning Key Concepts documentation overload creative process workflow optimization Questions to Reflect On - How can you balance paperwork and art? - What tools help reduce documentation burden? A Different Perspective Too much simpl may stifle necessary record‑keeping. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Art](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/art/) [Artist](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/artist/) [Bane](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/bane/) [Biographical Existence](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/biographical-existence-881714/) [Clear](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/clear/) [Desk](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/desk/) [Desk Thing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/desk-thing-881713/) [Documentation](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/documentation/) [Existence](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/existence/) [Existence Paper](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/existence-paper-881715/) [Ideal](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/ideal/) [Life](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/life/) [Me](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/me/) [Mountain](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/mountain/) [Oath](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/oath/) [Paper](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/paper/) [Perfectly](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/perfectly/) [Problem](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/problem/) [Thing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/thing/) [Vast](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/vast/) [Would](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/would/) [Writing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/writing/) [You](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/you/) ## Related quotes > [Life-writing calls for any number of dubious gifts: A touch of O.C.D., a lack of imagination, a large desk, neutrality of Swiss proportions, tactlessness,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/stacy-schiff/life-writing-calls-for-any-number-of-dubious-gifts-a-touch-of-o-c-d-a/) [Stacy Schiff](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/stacy-schiff/) > [Documentation is not understanding, process is not discipline, formality is not skill.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jim-highsmith/documentation-is-not-understanding-process-is-not-discipline/) [Jim Highsmith](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jim-highsmith/) > [“Behind every text footnote is a file folder with all the hardcopy documentation needed to document every sentence in this book at a moment’s…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edwin-black/behind-every-text-footnote-is-a-file-folder-with-all-the-hardcopy/) [Edwin Black](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edwin-black/) > [I think that the richer and deeper documentation is on the web, the better off we all are.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kenneth-goldsmith/i-think-that-the-richer-and-deeper-documentation-is-on-the-web-the/) [Kenneth Goldsmith](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kenneth-goldsmith/) > [I don't need a receipt for a doughnut. I'll just give you the money, and you give me the doughnut. End of transaction! We…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mitch-hedberg/i-don-t-need-a-receipt-for-a-doughnut-i-ll-just-give-you-the-money/) [Mitch Hedberg](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mitch-hedberg/) > [I've always written songs to use music as a form of therapy or as a way to look at my obstacles or my memories…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/chuck-ragan/i-ve-always-written-songs-to-use-music-as-a-form-of-therapy-or-as-a/) [Chuck Ragan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/chuck-ragan/) > [“There were waves of genocide that overcame indigenous populations of Oceania and do we have a library of books or films to tell our…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/m-b-dallocchio/there-were-waves-of-genocide-that-overcame-indigenous-populations-of/) [M.B. Dallocchio](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/m-b-dallocchio/) > [It is deeply shocking and incomprehensible to me that despite volumes of documentation and living witnesses who can attest to the horrors of the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mark-udall/it-is-deeply-shocking-and-incomprehensible-to-me-that-despite-volumes/) [Mark Udall](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mark-udall/) > [Our reasons for believing Jesus existed and also that He was who He claimed to be - the God who came down - are…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/greg-koukl/our-reasons-for-believing-jesus-existed-and-also-that-he-was-who-he/) [Greg Koukl](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/greg-koukl/) > [Nowhere are prejudices more mistaken for truth, passion for reason and invective for documentation than in politics.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-mason-brown/nowhere-are-prejudices-more-mistaken-for-truth-passion-for-reason-and/) [John Mason Brown](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-mason-brown/) > [I think that people are constantly thinking about capturing things that they're not actually present for the moment they're trying to capture. I'm quite…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ian-mackaye/i-think-that-people-are-constantly-thinking-about-capturing-things/) [Ian MacKaye](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ian-mackaye/) > [There is a book called San Francisco Tape Music Centre:1960s Counterculture and the Avant-Garde and this book describes everything that you want to know…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pauline-oliveros/there-is-a-book-called-san-francisco-tape-music-centre-1960s/) [Pauline Oliveros](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pauline-oliveros/) > [The obsessive documentation is itself adjacent to hyper-consumption in our society. The desire to just have everything all the time and adjacent to that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ted-leo/the-obsessive-documentation-is-itself-adjacent-to-hyper-consumption/) [Ted Leo](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ted-leo/) > [Developing fewer features allows you to conserve development resources and spend more time refining those features that users really need. Fewer features mean fewer…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jakob-nielsen/developing-fewer-features-allows-you-to-conserve-development/) [Jakob Nielsen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jakob-nielsen/) > [Once you realize that documentation should be laughed at, peed upon, put on fire, and just ridiculed in general, then, and only then, have…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/linus-torvalds/once-you-realize-that-documentation-should-be-laughed-at-peed-upon/) [Linus Torvalds](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/linus-torvalds/) ## More by Stacy Schiff > [As always, an educated woman was a dangerous woman.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/stacy-schiff/as-always-an-educated-woman-was-a-dangerous-woman/) [Stacy Schiff](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/stacy-schiff/) > [Recently a study proved that working from a larger, less cluttered computer screen increases concentration. I could have told them that. And yes, I…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/stacy-schiff/recently-a-study-proved-that-working-from-a-larger-less-cluttered/) [Stacy Schiff](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/stacy-schiff/) > [“She did not believe Fate as painstaking as her husband; she was more inclined to take matters into her own hands. She had ample…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/stacy-schiff/she-did-not-believe-fate-as-painstaking-as-her-husband-she-was-more/) [Stacy Schiff](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/stacy-schiff/) > [What we know about Cleopatra's looks is based purely on her coin portraits. Engraving was imperfect, and that when you are a ruler and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/stacy-schiff/what-we-know-about-cleopatra-s-looks-is-based-purely-on-her-coin/) [Stacy Schiff](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/stacy-schiff/) > [No one in the modern world controls the wealth or territory that Cleopatra did.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/stacy-schiff/no-one-in-the-modern-world-controls-the-wealth-or-territory-that/) [Stacy Schiff](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/stacy-schiff/) > [“Against a powerful enchantress there is no contest. Against a woman who ensnares a man in the coils of her serpentine intelligence - in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/stacy-schiff/against-a-powerful-enchantress-there-is-no-contest-against-a-woman/) [Stacy Schiff](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/stacy-schiff/) > [Motherhood is always an act of courage.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/stacy-schiff/motherhood-is-always-an-act-of-courage/) [Stacy Schiff](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/stacy-schiff/) > [Cleopatra stood at one of the most dangerous intersections in history; that of women and power. Clever women, Euripides had warned hundreds of years…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/stacy-schiff/cleopatra-stood-at-one-of-the-most-dangerous-intersections-in-history/) [Stacy Schiff](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/stacy-schiff/) > [“Nabokov complained he was afflicted with total recall, an affliction of which he could be miraculously cured by the presence of a biographer.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/stacy-schiff/nabokov-complained-he-was-afflicted-with-total-recall-an-affliction/) [Stacy Schiff](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/stacy-schiff/) > [“History existed to be retold, with more panache but not necessarily greater accuracy.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/stacy-schiff/history-existed-to-be-retold-with-more-panache-but-not-necessarily/) [Stacy Schiff](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/stacy-schiff/) > [“Véra assumed her married name almost as a stage name; rarely has matrimony so much represented a profession. It was one of the ironies…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/stacy-schiff/v-ra-assumed-her-married-name-almost-as-a-stage-name-rarely-has/) [Stacy Schiff](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/stacy-schiff/) > [When a woman teams up with a snake a moral storm threatens somewhere.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/stacy-schiff/when-a-woman-teams-up-with-a-snake-a-moral-storm-threatens-somewhere/) [Stacy Schiff](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/stacy-schiff/) > [The interesting thing about Cleopatra is that she is such a shape-shifter. I mean through history we've all molded her to our times and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/stacy-schiff/the-interesting-thing-about-cleopatra-is-that-she-is-such-a-shape/) [Stacy Schiff](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/stacy-schiff/) > [parenting is an exercise in unintended consequences.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/stacy-schiff/parenting-is-an-exercise-in-unintended-consequences/) [Stacy Schiff](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/stacy-schiff/) > [Strangely enough, politics may just be the one realm in which having kids imposes no penalty on women. Kids are practically a necessity. For…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/stacy-schiff/strangely-enough-politics-may-just-be-the-one-realm-in-which-having/) [Stacy Schiff](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/stacy-schiff/) [Explore all 86 Stacy Schiff quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/stacy-schiff/) ## More Art quotes > [True works of art contain their own theory and give us the measurement according to which we should judge them.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/johann-wolfgang-von-goethe/true-works-of-art-contain-their-own-theory-and-give-us-the/) [Johann Wolfgang von Goethe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/johann-wolfgang-von-goethe/) > [Before Noah, men having only water to drink, could not find the truth. Accordingly...they became abominably wicked, and they were justly exterminated by the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/benjamin-franklin/before-noah-men-having-only-water-to-drink-could-not-find-the-truth/) [Benjamin Franklin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/benjamin-franklin/) > [“Hear the sum of the whole matter in the compass of one brief word — every art possessed by man comes from Prometheus.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aeschylus/hear-the-sum-of-the-whole-matter-in-the-compass-of-one-brief-word/) [Aeschylus](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aeschylus/) > [I think most artists feel like they're outside society - no matter how many accolades they receive, or how much money is in your…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aaron-rose/i-think-most-artists-feel-like-they-re-outside-society-no-matter-how/) [Aaron Rose](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aaron-rose/) > [The capacity to be puzzled is the premise of all creation, be it in art or in science.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/erich-fromm/the-capacity-to-be-puzzled-is-the-premise-of-all-creation-be-it-in/) [Erich Fromm](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/erich-fromm/) > [That's the great secret of creativity. You treat ideas like cats: you make them follow you.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ray-bradbury/that-s-the-great-secret-of-creativity-you-treat-ideas-like-cats-you/) [Ray Bradbury](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ray-bradbury/) > [“So, really," continued Jacob as if this were perfectly normal to expound on art in these circumstances, "when you think about it, the artists…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/justina-chen-headley/so-really-continued-jacob-as-if-this-were-perfectly-normal-to-expound/) [Justina Chen Headley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/justina-chen-headley/) > [“There are two options in art; either to adopt philosophical life by dissecting art, or to write your own philosophical life and claim it…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/taf-teh/there-are-two-options-in-art-either-to-adopt-philosophical-life-by/) [Taf Teh](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/taf-teh/) > [The house has to serve comfort. The work of art is revolutionary; the house is conservative.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/adolf-loos/the-house-has-to-serve-comfort-the-work-of-art-is-revolutionary-the/) [Adolf Loos](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/adolf-loos/) > [During human progress, every science is evolved out of its corresponding art.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/herbert-spencer/during-human-progress-every-science-is-evolved-out-of-its/) [Herbert Spencer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/herbert-spencer/) > [In literature and art memory is a synonym for invention. It is the life-blood of imagination, which faints and dies when the veins are…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-aris-willmott/in-literature-and-art-memory-is-a-synonym-for-invention-it-is-the/) [Robert Aris Willmott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-aris-willmott/) > [I think a business guy is different from an artist. They walk different paths. Artists create the best outputs when they're having fun. And…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/g-dragon/i-think-a-business-guy-is-different-from-an-artist-they-walk/) [G-Dragon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/g-dragon/) > [“The only thing--I tell you this straight from the heart--that disgusts me in Salzburg is that one can't have any proper social intercourse with…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wolfgang-amadeus-mozart/the-only-thing-i-tell-you-this-straight-from-the-heart-that-disgusts/) [Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wolfgang-amadeus-mozart/) > [The sublime in art is the attempt to express the infinite without finding in the realm of phenomena any object which proves itself fitting…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/georg-wilhelm-friedrich-hegel/the-sublime-in-art-is-the-attempt-to-express-the-infinite-without/) [Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/georg-wilhelm-friedrich-hegel/) > [Art isn't done to decorate apartments, but to wage war against the enemy.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pablo-picasso/art-isn-t-done-to-decorate-apartments-but-to-wage-war-against-the/) [Pablo Picasso](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pablo-picasso/) [Browse all 48,643 Art quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/art/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "The desk thing is a problem for me. 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