( CNN ) -- Thank you , David Chase , for not changing the ending . Earlier Wednesday , Vox ran a long profile of Chase that quoted him as saying that Tony Soprano , whose fate was left hanging in the show 's famous , sudden cut to black , had lived . The news was , very quickly , everywhere . But it appears that the sphinx-like Chase was taken , perhaps , too literally . In a statement , his publicist said , `` A journalist for Vox misconstrued what David Chase said in their interview . To simply quote David as saying , 'Tony Soprano is not dead , ' is inaccurate . There is a much larger context for that statement and as such , it is not true . `` As David Chase has said numerous times on the record , 'Whether Tony Soprano is alive or dead is not the point . ' To continue to search for this answer is fruitless . The final scene of 'The Sopranos ' raises a spiritual question that has no right or wrong answer . '' Glad that 's settled . Seriously . For seven years , viewers have puzzled about the scene that closed out `` The Sopranos . '' In that finale , there were ominous portents afoot : a mysterious man in a Members Only jacket , daughter Meadow 's cross against traffic to meet everyone at a restaurant . And Tony , despite having ended therapy with Dr. Melfi and beaten the New York mob , was still gripped by angst . So the cut to black , jarring and in the middle of `` Do n't Stop Believin ' , '' was a shock . If we wanted some conclusion about Tony 's life -- whether he lived or died -- it was going to go unresolved . Forever . It was perfect . It was perfect because `` The Sopranos '' was as much about the pointless details of life as it was about the classic arcs of storytelling . For every brutal whacking , there was a Russian escaping through the Pine Barrens . For every guilty verdict , there was a guy who did n't get caught . As Matt Zoller Seitz writes in New York magazine , `` 'The Sopranos ' was never about ending mysteries , it was about recognizing and exploring the mysteries of everyday life : the mysteries of personality , motivation , conditioning and free will , as expressed through behavior and conversation and action , and as translated into metaphor through fantasies and dreams . '' Yeah , maybe the cut to black did n't have the neat resolution of a pulp novel . But thematically it was of a piece with the rest of the series , which was always as much about uncertainty and the struggle for reconciliation as it was about mob justice . For years , Chase has refused to say what happened to Tony . Some critics thought it was his way of telling the viewers who loved the violence -- and ignored the more philosophical aspects of the show -- to go f*** themselves , to borrow a phrase . Chase did n't see it that way . He just thought it was unnecessary . That did n't stop fans from grasping at details as if they 'd wandered into a Dan Brown novel . And this guy spent thousands of words and dozens of clips to arrive at his ultimate conclusion . Listen : Sometimes you die surrounded by loved ones , waiting for the light , exclaiming , `` Oh wow oh wow oh wow . '' Sometimes your scarf gets tangled in a car axle and breaks your neck . But , most of the time , you just go on , trying to make sense of it all and never succeeding . Now that Chase has let the pendulum swing once again , let 's hope it keeps swinging . To `` know '' the ending of `` The Sopranos '' is no more useful than knowing that Rosebud was a sled settles the meaning of `` Citizen Kane . '' ( Sorry , spoiler alert . ) Some things are better left unsettled . Do n't get any ideas , Matt Weiner .
David Chase gives interview in which he talks about end of `` Sopranos '' Statement says Chase 's words about Tony living were misconstrued . Leaving end unsettled is truer to Chase 's vision .