Pablo Neruda Quotes

And the books you write. They're not you. They're not me sitting here, this Henry Miller. They belong to someone else. It's terrible. You can never rest.

I have seen books made of things neither studied nor ever understood ... the author contenting himself for his own part, to have cast the plot and projected the design of it, and by his industry to have bound up the fagot of unknown provisions; at least the ink and paper his own. This may be said to be a buying or borrowing, and not a making or compiling of a book.

In our day the conventional element in literature is elaborately disguised by a law of copyright pretending that every work of art is an invention distinctive enough to be patented.

There's a difference between hiring writers and stealing jokes.

Of all the ways of acquiring books, writing them oneself is regarded as the most praiseworthy method.

Memory is the friend of wit, but the treacherous ally of invention; there are many books that owe their success to two things; good memory of those who write them, and the bad memory of those who read them

Books are an attempt to control something that's uncontrollable.

Ah, yes! I wrote the "Purple Cow" - I'm sorry, now, I wrote it! But I can tell you anyhow, I'll kill you if you quote it!

It is said, no man can write but one book; and if a man have a defect, it is apt to leave its impression on all his performances.

Writing a book is a brilliant thing because once you've finished it, you've done it, and there's the potential for it to go on earning you a living without you doing any more work on it. It's absolutely ideal for an idler.

Most authors steal their works, or buy.

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

I don't read much of what I write because I worry about unintentionally borrowing something.

That's the problem today: Who is the creator?

Everything that I write will be signed with my name.

Well, you might as well imitate your own program because if you don't, someone else will.

Be careful that you do not write or paint anything that is not your own, that you don't know in your own soul.

I don't steal stories. If I'm a plagiarist, so is Hitchcock. And Tolkien. And Shakespeare.

I don't believe in the ownership of work.

Too afraid of plagiarising someone, so I stopped reading fiction in 1981.

Self-plagiarism is style.

Artists need support, time and money to develop their ideas, and if people rip stuff off, you don't have to be that brilliant to figure out that you're ultimately going to affect the end product.

The idea of copyright did not exist in ancient times, when authors frequently copied other authors at length in works of non-fiction. This practice was useful, and is the only way many authors' works have survived even in part.

Mr. Fitzgerald, I believe that is how he spells his name, seems to believe that plagiarism begins at home.