'A Week at the Airport: A Heathrow Diary'

"My employer had made good on the promise of a proper desk. It turned out to be an ideal spot in which to do some work,for it rendered the idea of writing so unlikely as to make it possible again. Objectively good places to work rarely end up being so; in their faultlessness, quiet and well-equipped studies have a habit of rendering the fear of failure overwhelming. Original thoughts are like shy animals. We sometimes have to look the other way - towards a busy street or terminal - before they run out of their burrows." p. 42


"But the writer's desk was at heart an open invitation to users of the terminal to begin studying their setting with a bit more imagination and attention, to give weight to the feelings that airports provoke, but which we are seldom able to sort through or elaborate upon in the anxiety of making our way to the gate." p. 44

By Alain de Botton, 2009
A Week at the Airport: A Heathrow Diary'
Profile Books, London

http://alaindebotton.com/

http://www.profilebooks.com/