Neither novels or their readers benefit from any attempts to divine whether any facts hide inside a story. Such efforts attack the very idea that made-up stories can matter, which is sort of the foundational assumption of our species.

Getting you a date to prom is so hard that the hypothetical idea itself is actually used to cut diamonds. Ben, getting you a date to prom is so hard that the American government believes the problem cannot be solved with diplomacy, but will instead require force.

Every second of your definitionally temporary consciousness, you are choosing how you spend something that will not last forever.

By saying you don’t care if the world falls apart, in some small way you’re saying you want it to stay together, on your own terms.

He missed that, too, and it hadn't even happened.

Eternity bids thee to forget.

that while the world wasn't built for humans, we were built for the world.