In the Paper Cuts feature "Stray Questions," where Dwight Garner asks authors the same three stock questions, my favorite part is always the answer to "How much time - if any - do you spend on the Web? Is it a distraction or a blessing?" The answers may surprise you!

"I have zero interest in using the Web for [anything besides research]; I spend enough time staring into a computer screen as it is," 'Bee Season' author Myla Goldberg says today, but she's an anomaly -- nearly everyone else is Internet-obsessed. "If I don't get at least one e-mail every ten minutes I feel unloved. Even junk mail makes me feel seen. Sad, I know," admits Chris Abani. "I'd say that the Internet is probably my biggest impediment to writing," says blogger turned author Julie Powell, who says she spends a lot of time on her MySpace page and gossip blogs -- well, that's not so surprising.

And Alison Bechdel admits that "the Internet has become an integral part" of her "creative process," and that "E-mailing has become almost an autonomic bodily function for me."