Quotable - the gift economy

"The book I most often give as a gift is The Gift, by Lewis Hyde. I keep four or five copies around the house at all times, for swift giving to people who need them. Most often they are artists of one kind or another, and are worrying about the disconnect between what they do and how hard they work, and how little money they make. Hyde's book explains the differences between the money economy in which we think we live, and the gift economy, in which we also live. Gifts – including artistic gifts – travel in mysterious ways, but travel they must, or else they die."

~ Margaret Atwood, talking about World Book Night