It can be said that almost everything I have originates from books" - painter Tran Dai Thang shared on the occasion of the launch of his first book.
I want to start the Spring conversation with you by recalling a memory, which I think is not happy - as you said in the section "Not a People's Husband" (page 454) in your first and latest book "I Tell - All from Books" (Dân Trí Publishing House, Đông A Culture Joint Stock Company jointly published, launched on February 16, 2026), which were 2 times you angrily smashed the smartphones of your 2 children when they were too addicted to watching phones. Do you feel worried/unsettled about the career/achievements of making books over the past 20 years of your couple in particular and the story about the existence and future of paper books, of the passion for reading culture of everyone in general?
- I have never been worried about Dong A's future. I want everything to go naturally. My children will then choose the path that suits and is most loved by them. Of course, I will be very happy if my children follow in my footsteps. In "Don't Dream of Giving up Paper Books", an interesting dialogue between Jean-Claude Carrière and Umberto Eco about the future of books in the digital age, Jean-Claude Carrière has a saying I really appreciate: "A valuable book always lives, it grows and gets old with us, but never dies".
But I see that paper books will definitely decrease, because people's reading habits are changing. This is clearly shown in most countries around the world where bookstores are gradually closing down and the number is shrinking. However, books will not disappear, they will only shift from one form to another.
On page 262 of the book, he quoted an interview he answered for Lao Dong Newspaper 21 years ago (August 2, 2005). More than 20 years attached to books, as he confessed, up to this point, "It can be said that almost everything I have, all originates from books", has he noticed any fundamental changes in himself in the era of AI as it is rising to the throne of "master" in many fields of life: 1. Business philosophy; 2. Publishing experience; 3. Job goals.
- I still haven't changed. Coming from a fine arts school, I always want to follow my own preferences. I tend to be emotional rather than focusing on rationality. My thinking is very simple: Do it well, do it right. Today must be better than yesterday, and tomorrow must be better than today. I hate boredom.
I also don't set fixed goals for myself. For example, I never thought I would write books, until September 21, 2025, when I started "I Tell - It's All from Books" completely randomly. Maybe tomorrow I will paint again, or start something else just because it brings me excitement.
At At his book introduction on the afternoon of the third day of Tet at Ho Chi Minh City Tet Book Street (February 19, 2026), I found him quite honest when sharing that in the 7,000 book covers he has designed over the past few decades, he finds the most difficult, satisfactory, and happiest is the cover of his own book (507 pages, written in 1 month, September 21 - October 21, 2025; launched in Ho Chi Minh City February 19, 2026; in Hanoi February 26, 2026). Temporarily, 7,000-1=6999 - can look like the art path he has gone through from complexity (and also multi-colored confusion - as I see covers of many books designed by him in recent years) to simplicity and simplicity to make room for readers to freely imagine and guess about the content of the new book... Can you say more about the changes in your professional mind and professional eyes?
- As I always say, book covers are like fashion. For this person, it may be messy, colorful, but for others, it is meticulousness, detail. Even simplification is not sure to create sympathy from everyone.
Book covers will change over time, because art cannot stand still in one place or forever in one color, no matter how much achievement it achieves. The important thing is that the designer artist must always bring out works with high creativity and novelty in expression. Because readers are increasingly intelligent, meticulous and demand higher aesthetic taste than before.
Have you ever been curious to ask yourself, a seemingly... illogical thing, what do people buy books made by you for, do they really buy books to read?
- Oh, I have never cared about what people buy my books for. Some people think that buying beautiful books is something luxurious. But writer Nguyen Nhat Anh once said a very good saying: "If books are considered luxury, then I hope books are even more luxurious". Because like many other industries, each person has their own way of using their value. Some people buy wine to drink, some people buy wine to display. Some people buy clothes just to wear once, even forget to wear, and then buy many other things just because they like them without caring about their function. Books are the same! Reading, displaying, collecting or just to admire, that is the right of the buyer. My job is to make the book worth keeping in their own way.
Will you choose to bring a good book or a beautiful book if you go to... a deserted island? That, which author's book might it be?
- If forced to choose between two books, of course I choose the beautiful book. People still say "dressing is worthy of virtue". For us, we can only make a good book and make it more beautiful, but we have no inspiration to turn a bad book into a beautiful one.
And if you force me to take a book to the desert island, then it is definitely "Robinson Crusoe" by Daniel Defoe. That book is both classic and practical, and teaches me how to survive between loneliness and deprivation. On the island, it is not just literature, but also a companion.
