"I do indeed write on the road. My laptop goes with me everywhere"
About this Quote
The line has the offhand confidence of someone who’s turned imagination into logistics. Nora Roberts isn’t romanticizing the muse; she’s treating writing like a portable trade, closer to a carpenter packing tools than an artist waiting for lightning. “I do indeed” carries a faint whiff of being challenged - as if the questioner assumes serious work requires a sanctified desk, quiet room, and a certain brand of suffering. Roberts replies with a polite flex: the work happens because she decides it happens.
The subtext is discipline disguised as casualness. “On the road” evokes the glamour of airports and hotel rooms, but she drains it of mystique by centering the laptop, not the scenery. That’s a cultural signal about contemporary authorship: the creative life is increasingly optimized, scheduled, and mediated through devices that collapse place into “wherever the Wi-Fi is.” It also subtly rebukes the old myth that productivity is fragile, dependent on perfect conditions. Her stance is practical, even a little defiant: conditions are negotiable; output is nonnegotiable.
Context matters because Roberts is famously prolific, a writer whose career has long challenged literary hierarchies that equate seriousness with scarcity. This quote reads like a manifesto for professionalized creativity: not inspiration as an unpredictable guest, but writing as a habit with a power cord. In a culture that fetishizes burnout and artistic chaos, Roberts offers something more radical - consistency. The laptop isn’t just a device; it’s a declaration that the work is the point, not the aura around it.
The subtext is discipline disguised as casualness. “On the road” evokes the glamour of airports and hotel rooms, but she drains it of mystique by centering the laptop, not the scenery. That’s a cultural signal about contemporary authorship: the creative life is increasingly optimized, scheduled, and mediated through devices that collapse place into “wherever the Wi-Fi is.” It also subtly rebukes the old myth that productivity is fragile, dependent on perfect conditions. Her stance is practical, even a little defiant: conditions are negotiable; output is nonnegotiable.
Context matters because Roberts is famously prolific, a writer whose career has long challenged literary hierarchies that equate seriousness with scarcity. This quote reads like a manifesto for professionalized creativity: not inspiration as an unpredictable guest, but writing as a habit with a power cord. In a culture that fetishizes burnout and artistic chaos, Roberts offers something more radical - consistency. The laptop isn’t just a device; it’s a declaration that the work is the point, not the aura around it.
Quote Details
| Topic | Writing |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Roberts, Nora. (2026, January 17). I do indeed write on the road. My laptop goes with me everywhere. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-do-indeed-write-on-the-road-my-laptop-goes-with-79956/
Chicago Style
Roberts, Nora. "I do indeed write on the road. My laptop goes with me everywhere." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-do-indeed-write-on-the-road-my-laptop-goes-with-79956/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I do indeed write on the road. My laptop goes with me everywhere." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-do-indeed-write-on-the-road-my-laptop-goes-with-79956/. Accessed 19 Feb. 2026.
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