We don't lie to protect the other person. We lie to protect ourselves from the consequences. We lie because we don't want to deal with our own feelings. We lie because we don't want things to change. Not by our hand. So a wall starts to build.

Is a lie still a lie
if you say it pretty?

You have a choice," she told the class. "The whorish emptiness of lies or the straightlaced horrors of truth.

...and an edge that could cut a truth from a lie.

Telling one lie almost always requires another, and before the storyteller knows it, they will be caught inside of their own web.

There are no secrets.' The thing smiled, showing a row of even, childlike teeth. 'None worth keeping. Only the ones you hide from yourself, which are the most damaging and hurtful of all. Truth is truth, and lie is lie. Tell yourself one's the other and all the world turns kilter.