All works of nonfiction, or memoir, have to first and foremost be art before they can be true. They have to be artful first before they can be truthful... If you emphasize the truth-telling at the expense of art, nobody is going to be interested in it. And if you sacrifice truth in the name of art, you risk triviality. There's a constant balance between those two. Alan Shapiro
About This Quote

In the quote above, "All works of nonfiction, or memoir, have to first and foremost be art before they can be true." By this statement, the author is saying that the purpose of any nonfiction work of literature should be to be a work of art first. If this were to happen, then the quality and truthfulness of the work would be guaranteed. The author also mentioned that if you sacrifice truth in the name of art, you risk triviality. This statement is referring to when people make a story appear more interesting for the sake of being more interesting.

It happens all the time in movies and television shows. The goal is to grab your attention and make it hard for you to stop watching or reading. However, art does not always interest everyone as it may not be as entertaining as others believe.

To put it simply, art can often be seen as boring by those who do not enjoy it.

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  1. All works of nonfiction, or memoir, have to first and foremost be art before they can be true. They have to be artful first before they can be truthful... If you emphasize the truth-telling at the expense of art, nobody is going to be interested...
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