The Ford Dictum

On the eve of the publication of his new, much-awaited book, The Guardian profiles Richard Ford. When asked whether he still enjoys writing, the man replies: "The standard answer is, 'No I don't like doing this, but it feels so good when I stop.' But over the course of my life, I've tried to make sure that whatever I was doing, I knew why I was doing it. So it wasn't just a matter of getting to the end of it. And I've always thought of writing books in terms of will I write one more? I don't think to myself, 'I'm a professional writer, therefore I'm going to go on writing books till I heave forward on my desk.' I just think, OK, I did this; this is over. Then maybe I'll write one more book after that. That's a fairly liveable way to carry on."