LIARS: A COLLAGE

We need to develop a better descriptive vocabulary for lying, a taxonomy, a way to distinguish intentional lies from unintentional ones, and a way to distinguish the lies the liar himself believes in. I told her once that I had inoperable cancer and would soon be passed away and gone, eternally. But nothing I could think up, no matter how dramatic or completely horrible, ever made her repent or love me the way she had at first, before she really knew me. She screamed and broke objects. Nevertheless, I refused to kill her. Countless men and women, I supposed all over America, were tearing each other to pieces. It is not in our nature to stop harming ourselves.

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* “We need…believes in” (Rivka Galchen, Atmospheric Disturbances, p. 56).
“I told…knew me” (Denis Johnson, Jesus’ Son, p. 76).
“She screamed…kill her” (Leonard Michaels, Shuffle, p. 47)
“Countless men…to pieces” (Leonard Michaels, Sylvia, p. 49).
“It is…harming ourselves” (Marilynne Robinson, The Paris Review Interviews, Vol. 4, p. 450)

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