Quotes About Originality

You might as well acknowledge what came before, because you can never do something wholly new. It's not unoriginal to make your references clear.

Authors from whom others steal should not complain, but rejoice. Where there is no game there are no poachers.

Unlike what people assume, it is more challenging when you work with people whom you are comfortable with, because they know what you are coming up with, and hence, they expect you to deliver something new or different.

That is why the analogy of stealing does not work. With a thief, we want to know how much money he stole, and from whom. With the artist it is not how much he took and from whom, but what he did with it.

I strongly suggest that we play down basics like who influenced whom, and instead study the way the influence is transformed, in other words: how the artist made it his own.

My own life is wonderful, but if I had to live the life of someone else, I'd gladly choose that of Julia Child or Dr. Seuss: two outrageously original people, each of whom fashioned an idiosyncratic wisdom, passion for life, and sense of humor into an art form that anyone and everyone could savor.

It doesn't matter whose idea it is or where it came from or when it arrived in the process. The best idea is the best idea no matter what.

Serious art has been the work of individual artists whose art has had nothing to do with style because they were not in the least connected with the style or the needs of the masses. Their work arose rather in defiance of their times.

I feel like B sides are always better, no matter whose record it is.

I think the model that I look at is someone like Jakob Dylan, whose dad is obviously every bit if not more famous than mine. He's a guy who sought to build a career on his own, doing something that's a little bit different than what his father does.

I certainly wouldn't want to be a Mini Me of any of the people whose footsteps I've followed in.

I don't say I create. I copy, of course. I've never been interested in the point of view of the tailor or creator. Fashion is a visual impression. This is why I often refuse the name of fashion designer. It's a superficial, stupid job. The social-psychological aspect is more interesting.

Because advertising and marketing is an art, the solution to each new problem or challenge should begin with a blank canvas and an open mind, not with the nervous borrowings of other people's mediocrities. That's precisely what 'trends' are - a search for something 'safe' - and why a reliance on them leads to oblivion.

Why do you have to be a nonconformist like everybody else?

I don't like sequels at all. If the movie's good the first time, why bother?

I like working really fast. The best ideas are the first ones that come into your head - so why bother thinking of any more?

If I am thinking the same as everyone why bother pushing to get it published?

Ray is very secretive about his ideas - why not, the times that the Kinks have been ripped off, especially in the early years, it makes you a little bit cautious about telling anybody what you're doing. And that's understandable.

For years that may mean imitation. Then, one day, it is like a door opening, and a new thought comes in. Why not try this instead. Suddenly he is doing something original, almost in spite of himself.

When I was in primary school, I was given a five-line script in 'Anansi the Spider Man,' and I decided to just improv and make it my own. For a second, I felt like Kevin Hart because everyone was laughing. I just continued to do it. Why not?

Everybody's trying to repeat the past with the new network, with new devices and new tools. Why not make something brand-new?

If you're gonna steal from somebody, why not Shakespeare?

The world is wide. No two days are alike, nor even two hours, neither were there ever two leaves of a tree alike since the creation of all the world; and the genuine productions of art, like those of nature, are all distinct from each other.

Socks and sandals together are absolutely fine, as long as your flares are wide enough to cover your feet.