"It's called a pen. It's like a printer, hooked straight to my brain"
About this Quote
The intent is partly comic (the deadpan definition, the casual techno-metaphor), but the subtext is a quiet manifesto about authorship. Calling a pen a brain-printer is a way of insisting that writing is not primarily about devices; its about throughput between thought and page. No boot-up time, no updates, no permissions. The line flatters writers while also poking at the fetish of tools: if your workflow depends on the right gadget, maybe you are outsourcing confidence.
Context matters. In an era when creativity gets packaged as software features and productivity is measured by dashboards, Dauten reclaims a low-tech object as the most advanced instrument because it preserves the most human advantage: directness. The phrasing also smuggles in a romantic ideal of writing as pure transmission, thought made legible. Writers know its never that clean; the pen doesnt just print the brain, it edits it mid-sentence. Thats why the line works: it sells a fantasy of unblocked expression while winking at the messiness anyone whos tried to write actually recognizes.
Quote Details
| Topic | Writing |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Dauten, Dale. (2026, January 15). It's called a pen. It's like a printer, hooked straight to my brain. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/its-called-a-pen-its-like-a-printer-hooked-120502/
Chicago Style
Dauten, Dale. "It's called a pen. It's like a printer, hooked straight to my brain." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/its-called-a-pen-its-like-a-printer-hooked-120502/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"It's called a pen. It's like a printer, hooked straight to my brain." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/its-called-a-pen-its-like-a-printer-hooked-120502/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.




