"John was ten feet tall, and six feet wide and he had a laugh as loud as a train coming out of a tunnel".   Those aren't facts, but they might well be the truth about someone. "I have never regretted a thing I have done" - again, that might not strictly be factually accurate, but it could still be an expression of the truth about the person saying it.

Or there's a great song by an English singer, Jez Lowe, called The bonnie barque the Bergen.
In fact the name of the boat was the Burger or the Berger, but he changed it, to avoid the risk of people giggling about MacDonalds when he sang it. Facts are changed, but the truth remains. Any time you tell a story there are likely to be details that don't have to be held on to, if they get in the way. Characters can be combined, quotes can be put into people's mouths, that kind of thing. That's where stories differ from history.