I can't predict how reading habits will change. But I will say that the greatest loss is the paper archive - no more a great stack of manuscripts, letters, and notebooks from a writer's life, but only a tiny pile of disks, little plastic cookies where once were calligraphic marvels.

One of the pleasures of reading is seeing this alteration on the pages, and the way, by reading it, you have made the book yours.

It is usually expensive and lonely to be principled.

There's always a way if you're not in a hurry.

When I'm writing, I like to travel alone. If you really want to find out about a place, you need to be as free as possible to be spontaneous. You also need to be lonely, because loneliness is a great teacher, too.

Travel works best when you're forced to come to terms with the place you're in.

It's not fashionable but I like to spit out of the window of a moving train.