A language is not just a body of vocabulary or a set of grammatical rules. ... Every language is an old-growth forest of the mind.

The surface of the Earth itself is an immense loom upon which the sun weaves the fabric of existence.

We accept it as normal that people who have never been on the land, who have no history or connection to the country, may legally secure the right to come in and, by the very nature of their enterprises, leave in their wake a cultural and physical landscape utterly transformed and desecrated. What's more, in granting such mining concessions, often initially for trivial sums to speculators from distant cities, companies cobbled together with less history than my dog, the government places no cultural or market value on the land itself.

If diversity is a source of wonder, its opposite - the ubiquitous condensation to some blandly amorphous and singularly generic modern culture that takes for granted an impoverished environment - is a source of dismay. There is, indeed, a fire burning over the earth, taking with it plants and animals, cultures, languages, ancient skills and visionary wisdom. Quelling this flame, and re-inventing the poetry of diversity is perhaps the most important challenge of our times.

All cultures through all time have constantly been engaged in a dance with new possibilities for life. Change is the one constant in human history.

You know, once something freezes, it's solid. That's the key to the arctic - they didn't fear the cold, they made use of it.

On paper I would be a rather bold individual in our culture.