“My desk was a present from Margaret Atwood.After Zen and the Art of Uterus Maintenancesold its first million, she said I needed a placeto write, other than the local bus-shelter.”

“Writing is a deeper sleep than death. Just as one wouldn't pull a corpse from its grave, I can't be dragged from my desk at night.”

“Do you believe, she went on, that the past dies?Yes, said Margaret. Yes, if the present cuts its throat.”

“First, I do not sit down at my desk to put into verse something that is already clear in my mind. If it were clear in my mind, I should have no incentive or need to write about it. We do not write in order to be understood; we write in order to understand.”

“A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops. On my desk, I have a work station….”

“Sustainability requires that every community meet the needs of all its members (including plants and animals), present and future, without compromising the needs of other communities meeting the needs of their members, present and future.From The Small-Mart Revolution: How Local Businesses are Beating the Global Competition by ”