From Essays After Montaigne
It is not without reason, men say, that he who hath not a good and readie memorie should never meddle with telling of lies, and feare to become a liar...When they disguise or change, if they be often put to the repetition of one thing, it is hard for them to keepe still in one path, and very strange if they lose not themselves: because the thing, as it is, having first taken up her stand in the memory, and there by the way of knowledge and witting, imprinted itselfe, it were hard it should not represent itselfe to the imagination, displacing and supplanting falshood, which therein can have no such footing, or setled fastnesse; and that the circumstances of the first learning, still diving into the minde, should not cause it to disperse the remembrance of all false or bastardizing parts gotten together. Where they altogether invent, forsomuch as there is no certaine impression, to front their falshood, they seeme to have so much the lesser feare to mistake or forget themselves, which also notwithstanding being an airie bodie, and without hold-fast may easily escape the memorie...
Successful lying requires three distinct skills: imagination, empathy, and memory. Imagination is the fundamental requirement because lying is, at its root, making up a story, seeing things as they could be or as you would like them to be rather than as they are. Empathy, though not necessary to simply tell a lie, is necessary to tell a lie that will be compelling to its intended audience. It's very difficult to lie convincingly to people if you can't anticipate their expectations or reactions. And memory is needed to tell lies of any complexity or lies that are meant to persist. Without memory, you find yourself entangled in the details of your creation or, over time, you'll forget yourself and revert to the truth.
People who struggle with social interactions often do so because of an inability to understand the perspectives of others. I came to understand this while discussing Asperger's and related autistic disorders with two friends that my wife and I spent New Year's Eve with. They're child psychologists, and they both treat children and adults who suffer from such disorders. According to them, the central feature of Asperger's Disorder (underlying prominent symptoms like impairment of reciprocal social interactions and non-verbal communication, all-aborbing narrow interests, and the imposition of routines and interests) is the failure of imagination and empathy that would be necessary to understand anything but what is manifestly apparent to the sufferer. They described children with Asperger's Disorder who are unable to play the simplest games of make believe or hide-and-seek. And, of course, these children would be inept liars if they ever undertook to lie.
I have great sympathy for those children. I'm not completely incapable of lying, but it's not something I'm comfortable with--not because of any moral reservations, but because it's a significant effort for me. When I do lie, the lie to others is most often preceded by a lie to myself to make the falsehood a reality in my own mind, leaving me with fewer versions of reality to manage. I have a memory that clings tenaciously to every fact or event that comes to its attention, but without similarly developed powers of imagination and empathy, my memory makes lying difficult by tormenting me with the facts. It must be deceived before I can successfully deceive anyone else.
Put another way, I've come to understand that I would rather be right or know the truth than be happy. It's not that truth and happiness are mutually exclusive, but there is often tension between them. I become very anxious when there is ambiguity between myself and reality, when I don't know exactly what's happening or when I can't share that with those around me (even if knowing or sharing the truth is painful to myself or others). Though this compulsion to know the truth regardless of the difficulty has generally been very helpful in the course of my therapy, it has made my entry into healthy society harder. There is a significant element of discretion in successful social interactions. This is not an impulse to deceive, but an impulse to be kind or polite. I struggle with that.
8:23:14 AM 
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