Raven & Writing desk

Why is a raven like a writing desk?

In Chapter 7, the Hatter gives his famous riddle without an answer: "Why is a raven like a writing desk?" When asked by Alice what the answer was, he responds with, "I haven't the slightest idea." Although Carroll intended the riddle to have no solution, in a new preface to the 1896 edition of Alice, he proposes several answers: "Because it can produce a few notes, though they are very flat; and it is nevar put with the wrong end in front!" (Note the spelling of "never" as "nevar""turning it into "raven" when inverted. This reverse spelling, however, was "corrected" in later editions to "never" and Carroll's pun was lost.) Puzzle expert Sam Loyd offered the following solutions:

Because the notes for which they are noted are not noted for being musical notes
Poe wrote on both
They both have inky quills
Bills and tales ("tails") are among their characteristics
Because they both stand on their legs, conceal their steels ("steals"), and ought to be made to shut up.
Occult: Marquis Andras, the raven from The Lesser Key of Solomon, riding a wolf with a sword
WIARLAWD-IHTSI: aw laid war ihs it: alpha-omega laid war ihs (jesus) is it !
Cyril Pearson proposed:

Because they both slope with a flap
Many other answers are listed in The Annotated Alice. In Frank Beddor's novel Seeing Redd, the main antagonist, Queen Redd (a megalomaniac parody of the Queen of Hearts) meets Lewis Carroll and declares that the answer to the riddle is "Because I say so". Carroll is too terrified to contradict her.

Other answers include “because there is a B in both and an N in neither,” (an answer which was meant to highlight the absurdity of the original question), "Neither one is made of cheese", and "it isn't."

Arguably the most famous quote is used when the Queen of Hearts screams "Off with her head!" at Alice (and everyone else she feels slightly annoyed with). Possibly Carroll here was echoing a scene in Shakespeare's Richard III (III, iv, 76) where Richard demands the execution of Lord Hastings, crying "Off with his head!"