Novels attempt to render human experience; that's really all they are. They are meant to convey empathy for the character.
“The only work I've done the last two years is interviews. I'm very good at it.”
“Out all of these zillions of letters, one of the first ones that came was, as it turned out from Johnny Carson within the last five or six weeks of his life. I had worked with him. He lost a son who had worked for me.”