Quotes About Originality

I think that the most necessary quality for any person to have is imagination.

I have entered on an enterprise which is without precedent, and will have no imitator. I propose to show my fellows a man as nature made him, and this man shall be myself.

I have resolved on an enterprise that has no precedent and will have no imitator. I want to set before my fellow human beings a man in every way true to nature and that man will be myself.

There is no such thing as intellectual property.

A chic type, a rough type, an odd type - but never a stereotype

A writer must refuse to allow himself to be transformed into an institution.

Think for yourself. That's the golden rule. Think for yourself. Make it your mantra. Tattoo it on the inside of your eyelids.

Art begins in imitation and ends in innovation. —Mason Cooley

This has the benefit of originality," I said. "I agree. Keep them off balance. Hurl crazy hookers at the enemy at every opportunity. Sun Tzu said that, didn't he?" "I believe he did.

I realised all the good ideas were taken before I was even born.

Be yourself and people will like you.

That's not painting, that's Paint-By-Numbers. That's therapy for the artistically challenged. That's what they prescribe for cretins in dayrooms.

That's not the same sound someone else is going to make. We discount that as something we're supposed to measure against other people's imaginations, and that's a squandered gift.

He was also, according to his file, "a first-rate scientist partial to beer," the kind of mind Control had seen before. It needed dulling to slow it down or to distance itself from the possibility of despair. Beer versus scientist represented a kind of schism between the banality of speech versus the originality of thought. An ongoing battle.

The world is filled with people who have too much imagination solely because the people around them have too little.

When you die and go to heaven our maker is not going to ask, 'why didn't you discover the cure for such and such? why didn't you become the Messiah?' The only question we will be asked in that precious moment is 'why didn't you become you?

That's really important in trying to understand shibui. It sounds simple, like a cliché, really; but it's true: a woman is most beautiful when she is herself.

The Bhagavad Gita—that ancient Indian Yogic text—says that it is better to live your own destiny imperfectly than to live an imitation of somebody else's life with perfection. So now I have started living my own life. Imperfect and clumsy as it may look, it is resembling me now, thoroughly.

Anyhow, the older I get, the less impressed I become with originality. These days, I'm far more moved by authenticity. Attempts at originality can often feel forced and precious, but authenticity has quiet resonance that never fails to stir me.

It might have been done before, but it hasn't been done by you!

Everyone makes their own path, and I must make mine. The Bhagavad Gita - and ancient Indian Yogic text - says that it is better to live your own destiny imperfectly than to live an imitation of somebody else's life perfectly. So now I have started living my own life. Imperfect and clumsy as it may look, it is resembling me now, thoroughly. It is mine.

But never delude yourself into believing that you require someone else's blessing (or even their comprehension) in order to make your own creative work.

I have never created anything in my life that did not make me feel, at some point or another, like I was the guy who just walked into a fancy ball wearing a homemade lobster costume.

Your art not only doesn't have to be original, in other words; it also doesn't have to be important.