I was invited to Konstepidemin in Göteborg to lecture about creativity to the summer school students. The project manager and the teachers sat down and the students all sat down. I was going to talk about creativity, but it felt overdone. Instead I started bragging about being one hell of a liar. It's true. I'm the best liar out of everyone I know.

Liar = Creator
Imagination = Big ball of untrue thoughts
Creativity = The ability to lie well
Career = A series of lies and good timing

I tried to explain this to the crowd as the faces of the teachers turned paler and paler, while the students lit up every time I said: It's good to lie. Lie! Keep lying! Bullshit them! Distort reality! Make things up! Release the fetuses of your imagination! Pervert the facts!

There is nothing I hate more than bad liars. Uncreative, stupid liars. Learn the art of lying colorfully and beautifully. Practice lying. Go to a bar and pretend to be someone you're not, make up things you've done and see how far you can take it.

The other day I made up that our agent Johan had been a child actor and that he had only had one part; as Skorpan in Bröderna Lejonhjärta. The two girls we were with looked back and forth at me and Johan waiting for me to admit to joking. I never did. Lying is serious business. How do you think Harry Houdini got so big? He hired people to go around town making up rumors and creating the myth and then fooling people with his tricks. He lied his way to becoming one of the greatest names in history. That's true creativity.

There are no shortcuts though. Practice on your friends, at bars, in class rooms. Start a blog as another person. Lie in e-mails to companies and people just to see what reactions you get. Try it out. I'm not saying steal money or to do anything illegal. Just fib a bit to begin with. Did it work? Try a bigger lie. Did it work? Lie together a whole world. Who knows. All of the sudden you might have a whole novel or screenplay that's ready to write.