Philip Roth on The 'Lost Cause' of Literature

What do you see as the role of a writer in our society?

Your role is to write as well as you can. You're not advancing social causes as far as I'm concerned; you're not addressing social problems. [...] What you're advancing is [...] the cause of literature, which is one of the great lost human causes. So you do your bit; you do your bit for fiction, for the novel.

Why do you think it's become one of the 'great lost causes' of our time?

Oh my goodness. [...] I don't think in twenty or twenty-five years people will read these things at all.

Not at all?

Not at all. [...] I think it's inevitable. I think there are other things for people to do, other ways for them to be occupied, other ways for them to be imaginatively engaged that are, I think, probably far more compelling than the novel. So, I think the novel's day has come and gone, really.

I would imagine you would think this is a great loss for society?

Yes, I do. There's a lot of brilliance locked up in all those books in the library. There's a lot of human understanding. And there's a lot of language. [...] There's a lot of imaginative genius. So, yes, it's a great shame.

And what happens for you?

Me?

You.

I'll keep doing it. Stubbornly.

Fundet her.