“Lying as a means of coping with poverty had given way to something more pathological. Instead of easing my passage through reality, lying had become a way of denying it altogether. To the extent that lying can become a game, its goals share something in common with gambling: It escalates not because people are hard to fool but because they are so easily fooled that experienced liars grow bored with their habit.” Interesting first person piece by Joshua Hunt in the NYT (Gift Article): How I Became a Pathological Liar. (Oddly, it had nothing to do with running for office…)