Hal Foster on his legacy

SABA: Do you have a feeling of satisfaction also that you're leaving in the world a great body of very fine work that people for generations are going to look at?
FOSTER: Never thought of that, no.
SABA: You don't think about immortality?
FOSTER: No.
SABA: Or posterity?
FOSTER: No. Because what I've done is what I had to do, what I enjoyed most. And if I've lost the use of one leg, and I can't remember anything, at least I can give up quietly, and...
SABA: You feel...
FOSTER: Yes, I feel repaid.

...

SABA: But as you say, the feeling of what you're going to be leaving behind you for years, for generations afterward, that thought hasn't particularly meant much to you.
FOSTER: No, because when I'm gone, I won't know, and besides, I'm not doing the kind of work that lasts for future generations.
SABA: You don't think so?
FOSTER: No. Mine is a comic, during this decade or this century, and what people like this century might not be popular in the next one, and paper doesn't wear well.