Annie Dillard in Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (1974), quotes the the Greek writer, philosopher, and politician Nikos Kazantzakis as saying that 'when he was young he had a canary and a globe. When he freed the canary, it would perch on the globe and sing. All his life, wandering the earth, he felt as though he had a canary on top of his mind, singing.' On writing about a walk she was on — 'You know you're alive. You take huge steps, trying to feel the planet's roundness arc between your feet.'