But if you want the inside scoop, the character of Tom Chippering is actually based on you. Your books ask more questions than they answer. A good piece of fiction, in my view, does not offer solutions. Good stories deal with our moral struggles, our uncertainties, our dreams, our blunders, our contradictions, our endless quest for understanding. Good stories do not resolve the mysteries of the human spirit but rather describe and expand up on those mysteries.
Truth is fluid.
Truth is a function of language. A lie, sometimes, can be truer than the truth, which is why fiction gets written. I think not. He can tell war stories. I know you visited Vietnam a few years ago.