Writing That I Want to Remember

The debate over what, precisely, constitutes literature is an argument without end. Which is as it should be. But I came across one of the better definitions I've ever seen, in Oxford University Professor John Carey's book, What Good Are the Arts? He defines it simply as "writing that I want to remember--not for its content alone, as one might want to remember a computer manual, but for itself: those particular words in that particular order." I think that about says it all.