At the beginning of many relationships, and certainly in bo of your novels, the characters not only want to edit, but also create a persona that will best excite and entice the other person. How can i abandon my true self unless know what false self to adopt? I think there's a real tension in love, at the beginning of love, particularly between the desire to be honest about who one is and the desire to win the affection of another person. And we're all quite skilled, i think, at swerving away from the challenges of honesty. But as people get older, they get better at this.