Wit & Attitude Quote by Theodore Sturgeon

A confession that doubles as a dare: Sturgeon opens his origin story by admitting his first “sale” was basically a con. The line works because it weaponizes the wholesome mythology of the young writer breaking in. Instead of the plucky apprenticeship, he gives us a scheme to defraud an insurance company, “foolproof” not in the sense of elegant craft but in the sense of airtight deception. It’s funny, but it’s also an ethics test for the reader: are you scandalized by the criminal impulse, or impressed by the ingenuity?

Sturgeon’s sly pivot is in the phrasing “dreamed up a… paper.” He’s describing forgery as imagination, paperwork as fiction, and the confidence trick as a cousin of storytelling. That’s the subtext: the skills that make a writer marketable - inventiveness, plausibility, attention to detail - are morally neutral tools. You can use them to build worlds or to cheat systems.

The target matters, too. An insurance company is an institution designed to quantify risk, turn catastrophe into actuarial tables, and deny claims with bureaucratic serenity. Sturgeon doesn’t pick a widow or a neighbor; he picks a faceless corporate machine, inviting a flicker of populist sympathy even as he admits wrongdoing. In mid-century America, insurance embodied both security and suspicion: a promise of protection delivered through fine print. Sturgeon’s line cuts through that hypocrisy by implying the system itself is a kind of story - one you can rewrite if you’re bold enough to submit a more convincing draft.