Isn’t a miserable reality better than the most interesting illusion? Or is it illusion, Barney? I don’t know… — Philip K. Dick

So that’s that, Barney said to himself. I violated Rule One of career-oriented functioning: never tell your superior something he doesn’t want to hear.

It takes a certain amount of courage, he thought, to face yourself and say with candor, I’m rotten. I’ve done evil and I will again. It was no accident; it emanated from the true, authentic me.

But an artist, he realized. Or rather so-called artist. Bohemian. That’s closer to it. The artistic life without the talent.