Narcissists don't lie so much as self-soothe. One of the keys to understanding narcissism is that everything they do - all statements, transactions, relationships, all of it - is an attempt to make themselves feel as good as they can, all of of the time.

It's such a weird syndrome. You're looking at someone who isn't psychotic - no CIA-controlled spiders coming out of their TV - but is still trapped in a subjective state where the outside world is a constant, terrifying threat, and the only way to deal with it is constant self-reassuring pretence and delusion.