Truth Inside the Lie

Under My Skin: Volume I of my Autobiography to 1949. This was the first volume of a two volume autobiography, covering  birth in 1919 to leaving Southern Rhodesia.

I just came across this quote by Doris Lessing (from the first volume of her autobiography, Under My Skin):

“There is no doubt fiction makes a better job of the truth.” 

In the dedication for the novel It, Stephen King says:

“Fiction is the truth inside the lie.” (That bit is part of a longer sentence, but works better on its own.)

I’ve been thinking about this all day.  I know that if I go looking I can find similar quotes by writers, but really what interests me is the juxtaposition of lie – truth – fiction.