Art & Creativity Quote by James J. Corbett

Corbett talks like a prizefighter who’s seen how money and myth get made in the same ring. “Let authors write for glory and reward” isn’t a moral scolding; it’s a permission slip. He’s shrugging at the old suspicion that art (or commentary, or craft) should be pure, selfless, above the market. From an athlete whose own career depended on gates, promoters, headlines, and the appetite for spectacle, that’s not cynicism so much as literacy: prestige is a currency, and so is cash.

Then he lands the sharper point: “The truth is well paid when she is sung and heard.” Truth, in this framing, isn’t a static fact sitting nobly on a shelf. She’s a performer. Corbett genders her and makes her audible, as if truth only collects her due when she’s turned into a compelling song - narrative, rhythm, timing, voice. It’s an early, surprisingly modern insight into attention economics: being right is not the same as being received. If you can’t package truth in a form people will actually consume, it doesn’t just fail to travel; it fails to earn.

The subtext is a defense of craft against puritanism. Corbett’s era was thick with mass newspapers, celebrity culture, and the professionalization of both sports and writing. He’s basically arguing that “selling out” is often just “showing up” in the arena where audiences already are. The uncomfortable implication: truth’s paycheck depends less on her virtue than on her ability to headline.