Cormac McCarthy Quotes

The world is forever babbling of originality; but there never yet was an original man, in the sense intended by the world; the first man himself--who according to the Rabbins was also the first author--not being an original; the only original author being God.

The merit of originality is not novelty; it is sincerity.

For me, music has been, in a sense, my religion, and it is what brings me closest to God or truth or whatever you want to call it.

If you have anything really valuable to contribute to the world it will come through the expression of your own personality, that single spark of divinity that sets you off and makes you different from every other living creature.

I don't think anybody came into the movie business to be unoriginal and plagiarising and not having an original idea in their brain.

An idea's birth is legitimate if one has the feeling that one is catching oneself plagiarizing oneself.

I think God is the most unexplored territory in rock and roll music.

I'm constantly trying to be as original as I can.

The spiritual is the parent of the practical.

Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.

The visionary imagination is the source of art and religion.

You can't be different for different's sake, and this doesn't always work, but you have to separate yourself from the normal read. Of course, it has to be truthful. If it's not truthful, don't waste your time.

I always imagine, and try to be on the lookout, for new things, for references that can inspire me creatively so I can showcase things that people haven't done before or that are new.

I've always just written my heart and allowed God to do what he wanted to do.

Creativity itself is divine. Creativity itself is godliness.

The greatest geniuses have always attributed everything to God, as if conscious of being possessed of a spark of His divinity.

A man who has not enough originality to think out a new title for his book will be much less capable of giving it new contents.

Originality, of course, is what occurs when something new arises out of what's already been done.

Truth is the nursing mother of genius.

I look for that stimulation constantly. I'm looking for inspiration and stimulation. Not bored with what we've done.

Originality, I fear, is too often only undetected and frequently unconscious plagiarism.

Men grind and grind in the mill of a truism, and nothing comes out but what was put in. But the moment they desert the tradition for a spontaneous thought, then poetry, wit, hope, virtue, learning, anecdote, and all flock to their aid.

Imagination? It is the one thing beside honesty that a good writer must have. The more he learns from experience the more he can imagine.

I never thought innovation as such was very important. Not when you have to think about it... If you're going to come up with a new direction or a really new way to do something, you'll do it by just playing your stuff and letting it ride. The real innovators did their innovating by just being themselves.

Ego cannot bring anything extraordinary into the world; the extraordinary comes only through egolessness. And so is the case with the musician and the poet and the dancer. So is the case with everybody.