My stories all have endings but most of the endings are beginnings. Which makes me an optimist (another reason I can only approach this world satirically) and a skeptic. There are things in this world beyond facts, Horatio. The meaning and the payoff come in ways that can’t be quantified like gems on a scale. Meaning is elusive, gossamer, changing and transforming as we stupidly try to fix it. Every moment worth living has a little mystery in it and that’s where fiction beats reality hands-down, because it has the freedom to dwell in that realm.