Quand le doigt montre le ciel, l__mbécile regarde le doigt. [When a finger is pointing up to the sky, only a fool looks at the finger.]

They were learning that New York had another life, too _ subterranean, like almost everything that was human in the city _ a life of writers meeting in restaurants at lunchtime or in coffee houses after business hours to talk of work just started or magazines unpublished, and even to lay modest plans for the future. Modestly they were beginning to write poems worth the trouble of reading to their friends over coffee cups. Modestly they were rebelling once more.

...it's not the medium that's the message - it's consciousness - the wonder of being able to wonder ...

The new contract between writers and readers is one I'm prepared to sign up to. I've met some fascinating people at events and online. Down with the isolation of writers I say! And long live Twitter.

Pope John Paul II once said as well, __ebanon is a message more than it is a country._ Now this diversity has turned into fragmentation and the richness into poverty, awaiting a miraculous remedy.

Thought for the day: Twitter...140 character limit...must be a great tool for fortune cookie writers...