Sitting in a sun-drenched office, his voice boyish, Lucas talked about himself as if he were a character in one of his movies.

"Feminism in Russia is associated with primitive stereotypes," she said in her sun-drenched office, which is based in a worn but stately St. Petersburg apartment.

In a rare interview last week in his sun-drenched 40th-floor office overlooking the East River from midtown Manhattan, Mr. Volcker made it clear that the book, "Changing Fortunes: The World's Money and the Threat to American Leadership," was not intended to settle old scores.

Rock 'n' roll, in this case Marc Bolan, is playing at appropriate rock 'n' roll volume, which is to say loud; the large, sun-drenched office, with its tall grimy windows overlooking Central Park West, is scattered with dinosaur bones - props, Dr. Norell will say later, for television shoots.

Now, on a brilliant spring day, Ms. Wilson is sitting in the sun-drenched office of Lydia Axelrod, the school principal and superintendent of the Shelter Island Union Free School District, talking excitedly about her involvement in public education.

"There are a lot of nonunion building service workers who make $6 an hour, with no benefits, working two, three, four jobs and living in poverty," Mr. Fishman said in a modest, sun-drenched office at his union's headquarters, just north of Canal Street.

He grins at the thought, lounging in his sun-drenched office in a pink shirt and sweater.

SITTING behind a large oak desk in the expansive, sun-drenched office that once belonged to her husband, Helene Fortunoff looks every bit the woman in charge.