Distraction & writing: Internet vs the Fountain Pen

From an interview with playwright Tony Kushner in The Paris Review:

Do you feel the Internet has changed the way you think and write? Do you think of it primarily as a help or as this enemy that you have to battle?

KUSHNER

In some ways it’s definitely an enemy. This morning I was going to work on a Lincoln rewrite before I came to meet you. A couple of days ago I biked all over Provincetown looking for a needle threader—you know, one of those old-fashioned little tin discs with a cameo on it and a thin wire loop sticking out. I found one and bought it. I’m trying to teach myself how to needlepoint. I even considered bringing my needlepointing here, needlepointing during the interview, but then what would you think? Anyway, I bought this needle threader, but it was crap—two uses into it, the thing broke. So, this morning before working on Lincoln, I decided I would go online and find a really good needle threader. And who knew that on Amazon alone, there are dozens of needle threaders? So I started thinking, Why does this needle threader have five stars and this one four and a half? And this one only has two, isn’t that interesting? Can you imagine who got this needle threader and was really disappointed? And then, it’s like, Oh my God, it’s ten o’clock! I didn’t do any work.

You can’t do that with a pen. You can draw pictures with a fountain pen. You fill it with ink, which takes time, and then you make a mess and spill the ink, and you have to clean up your hands. So there’s stuff to potschke around with with a fountain pen, but it’s mostly of limited interest. Unless you decide that you have to go shopping for fountain pens, which is just like, forget it.