I’m grateful that many critics consider my work to have originality and a distinctive creative vision. I can safely say that going to bookstores and picking out books is part of what makes that possible. By training my eye and my aesthetic perceptivity to find winners, I’ve formed my own viewpoint and values, which yield creative output with

The information you see on the internet comes to you filtered and tailored to your personal likings and interests. In a bookstore, information of all types comes into your view passively as you browse, even on topics that you don’t follow. Bookstores create a broader context that doesn’t exist on the internet.

Stories allow you to experience places you could never go—the past, the future, or distant worlds. You can become a different ethnicity or gender. Even when you’re reading all by yourself, you’re sharing those stories as they unfold before you with countless people whom you’ve never met.