I am, you could say, something of a curator of ideas, a magpie collecting the glittering fragments of life’s stories. It is not some affectation but merely the way I was raised, and it is a habit I have cherished. I seek out solitude, not as a retreat but as a necessity, a sanctuary wherein these stories may take root, blossoming into something more intricate, more beguiling. To be alone with one’s thoughts is not an affliction but an art form, and in that stillness, the tales whisper their truths, begging to be transformed into something rather more clever and captivating.