Quotes About Originality

When hit with a genius idea, people tend to say, Well, if I sat down in a chair and really thought about it, I could have had that genius idea, too. But they didn't--and even if they'd wanted to, it could never have happened.

Perish the men who said our good things before us!

Confound those who have said our remarks before us.

Borrowed plumes.

Man is an unoriginal animal. Unoriginal within the law in his daily respectable life, equally unoriginal outside the law. If a man commits a crime, any other crime he commits will resemble it closely.

No human being should learn from another. Each individual should develop his own powers to the uttermost, not try to imitate those of someone else. I do not wish you to be a second and inferior Poirot. I wish you to be the supreme Hastings. And you are the supreme Hastings. In you, Hastings, I find the normal mind almost perfectly illustrated.

Man is an unoriginal animal," said Hercule Poirot

But I don't doubt it will be essentially the same type of crime. The details may be different, but the essentials underlying them will be the same. It's odd, but a criminal gives himself away every time by that. Man is an unoriginal animal," said Hercule Poirot. "Women," said Mrs. Oliver, " are capable of infinite variation. I should never commit the same type of murder twice running." "Don't you ever write the same plot twice running?" asked Battle.

It is a theory of mine," I said, warming to my theme, "that we owe most of our great inventions and most of the achievements of genius to idleness?either enforced or voluntary. The human mind prefers to be spoon-fed with the thoughts of others, but deprived of such nourishment it will, reluctantly, begin to think for itself?and such thinking, remember, is original thinking and may have valuable results.

When people ask "Do you put real people in your books?" the answer is that, for me, it is quite impossible to write about anyone I know, or have ever spoken to, or indeed have even heard about! For some reason, it kills them for me stone dead.

One could write a play about such an idea." "It has been done," said Poirot. "But console yourself, Hastings," he added kindly. "Because a theme has been used once, there is no reason why it should not be used again. Compose your drama.

should learn from another. Each individual should develop his own powers to the uttermost, not try to imitate those of someone else. I do not wish you to be a second and inferior Poirot. I wish you to be the supreme Hastings. And you are the supreme Hastings. In you, Hastings, I find the normal mind almost perfectly illustrated.

Being unspoiled and natural. You learn how to do it, and then you have to go on being it all the time. Just think of the hell of it—never to be able to chuck something, and say, 'Oh, for the Lord's sake stop bothering me.

Hate isn't creative." - Stillingfleet

By the way, I should like to make it clear here and now that the story will not be a story of South Africa. I guarantee no genuine local colour -- you know the sort of thing -- half a dozen words in italic on every page. I admire it very much, but I can't do it.

Man is an unoriginal animal. Unoriginal within the law in his daily respectable life, equally unoriginal outside the law.

When one is unique, one knows it! And others share that opinion—

There is always an apple way of doing things.

The path less taken disinterests me while the path frequently taken appalls me. I'd rather find a path never taken before

When we had to do book reports, I would pick a book that no one read and just make it up and turn that in. I got praised for my imagination.

Don't be his story. Don't be anyone else's story. Be your own story. Protect yourself.

Anybody who cares less about wanting to be cool, I think, is more interesting.

Because a rebel is just a guy who doesn't have the good sense to go the same way the crowd is going, and the composure to act like that was his idea all along.

In other words, I did not—and still don't—have a completely personal, distinctive, way of looking at things.