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'Most books don't last'

4 December 2017

‘My students at Columbia I teach to read. If you can be a good reader and can think that reading and literature are great pursuits, you can perhaps teach yourself to write. For every ‘lesson' one would try to propound there'd be a wonderful story or novel that violated any rule. But that's about all. I use myself as something like a specimen to them...

I'm not that much interested in what happens to my books after I pass along. I say, with Shakespeare, that: ‘Present mirth is present laughter.' Carver was a great writer, and nobody much talks about him, at least not in my hearing. Not that he won't persist; I think he will...
Most books don't last in the public consciousness beyond the author's lifetime. If mine don't, I still take immense pleasure from the use they were put to in my lifetime - by readers...

Writers are all supposed to be dedicated to their work's permanence. Me, not so much. If my work lasts as an element in the reading public's experience, I suppose I'd be happy - if I weren't dead. But frankly I can't give it much thought at all. It's one less thing to worry about, really.'

Richard Ford, author of The Sportswriter and Let Me Be Frank with You, talking about writing in the Guardian