But ask someone next to you, very softly so as not to wake him: “are you asleep?” If he replies that he is, then that makes him a liar. But he can reply by pretending to be asleep, which is not actually lying, but pretending to lie. There is a big difference, since this is a lovers’ game. The question itself is a lovers’ game because it assumes the partner is not asleep while making every effort not to wake him. Besides, these are the same questions: do you love me? are you lying to me? are you asleep? And the reply – yes, I love you, yes, I’m lying, yes, I’m asleep – is equally paradoxical. But it is not untruthful. It simply comes from another world which is not the same as the first. “Yes, I’m asleep. Yes, I’m lying. Yes, I love you” all these answers reflect a marvelous somnambulism and, all in all, a very clear grasp of the relations we establish with reality when we are sleeping, lying or in love.

- Jean Baudrillard, Cool Memories (via babelblogs)