I would say that there is no future for literary studies as such in the United States.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Does fiction, artistic writing, have much of a future? I must say it's on the way out.
The world gets older, without getting either better or worse and so does literature. But I do think that the drab current phenomenon that passes for literary studies in the university will finally provide its own corrective.
The idea of being a novelist is really romantic, but it's kind of the same as being president of the United States - it's not gonna happen.
I don't think any novelist should be concerned with literature.
I'll be happy if I can gain even the smallest place inside the literary imagination of U.S. readers.
I haven't been the kind of writer about whom book-length academic studies have been written.
I see a resurgence of interest in poetry. I am less optimistic about the prospects for the arts when it comes to federal funding.
For years, I had heard about the lack of interest in literature in the U.S. and I had complained about it. I failed to understand how people could fail to be moved by art.
Local markets for literary fiction remain underdeveloped; the metropolis often holds out the only real possibility of a professional writing career.
The writer studies literature, not the world.