quote · Legacy record
I would lie of course. I lied a lot and with good reason: to protect the truth—safeguard it like wearing fake gems to keep the real ones from getting stolen or cheapened by overuse. I guarded what truths I possessed because information was not a thing—it was colorless odorless shapeless and therefore indestructible. There was no way to retrieve or void it no way to halt its proliferation. Telling someone a secret was like storing plutonium inside a sandwich bag the information would inevitably outlive the friendship or love or trust in which you’d placed it. And then you would have given it away.
I would lie of course. I lied a lot and with good reason: to protect the truth—safeguard it like wearing fake gems to keep the real ones from getting stolen or cheapened by overuse. I guarded what truths I possessed because information was not a thing—it was colorless odorless shapeless and therefore indestructible. There was no way to retrieve or void it no way to halt its proliferation. Telling someone a secret was like storing plutonium inside a sandwich bag the information would inevitably outlive the friendship or love or trust in which you’d placed it. And then you would have given it away.
Approximate author period: c. 1962 AD · modern
Meaning not yet available
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- Author or tradition
- Jennifer Egan
Attribution: attributed - Country attributed
- Not established
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- Approximate author period: c. 1962 AD · modern
Approximate author-period evidence for Jennifer Egan: documented birth year 1962; activity date not established. Wikidata Q264283, inspected 2026-10-08. Not a quotation composition date or independent verification of attribution. Source: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q264283 (accessed 2026-10-08).
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Supplied reference C; CSV row 251804; supplied attribution, independently unverified
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