Charles Kuralt Quotes

I'm a writer who likes to be influenced.

It's hard to read good fiction when I am writing, because if it is really good I catch myself sort of inadvertently imitating a great writer.

Good writers borrow from other writers. Great writers steal from them outright.

I try to write like the writers I admire - I rip them off in form. It comes from George Strait and Merle Haggard records, and country music in general is really good at that, the twisted phrase... So I'm always looking for that angle in my own work.

When it comes to other people's writing, my older influences are more powerful than more recent ones, partially because I'm now more worried that I'll suddenly accidentally steal something from another writer.

The best way to become a successful writer is to read good writing, remember it, and then forget where you remember it from.

All writers are magpies, right? We're always stealing bits from different places and then weaving them into our little nest.

Originality is nothing but judicious imitation. The most original writers borrowed one from another.

I write 'by the seat of my pants.' I love to do research. I am inspired by contemporary writers and contemporary events. I live in the real world.

When I read good stories, I want to write good stories too.

I spend a lot of time writing. I get inspiration from texts rather than images.

About the most originality that any writer can hope to achieve honestly is to steal with good judgment.

My heroes were never scientists. They were Graham Greene and Christopher Isherwood, you know, good writers.

The future author is one who discovers that language, the exploration and manipulation of the resources of language, will serve him in winning through to his way.

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

One of my favorite modern American authors is Denis Johnson. I'm deeply inspired by all of his work - I rip him off constantly.

When a thing has been said and well, have no scruple. Take it and copy it.

Farber had a huge effect on me as a writer. I don't mean I write like him. Farber is, first of all, a great stylist, a great writer. Anyone can read Manny Farber's film criticism, whether that person is a novelist, a poet, another critic, a historian, and learn a lot about writing by reading him.

I think writers are observers and watchers. We always have our ears open and eyes open, so I might see something in everyday life that inspires me. And I think that's probably more than anything else. Everyday life is where I get my inspiration.

No one can write like Vallejo and not sound like a fraud. He's just too much himself and not you.

All writers are mimics, and I'm not interested in picking up somebody else's style or voice.

I take stuff because I'm inspired by it.

I love movies. Movies have influenced me as a writer.

Good artists copy, great artists steal.

I think all comics borrow from each other. Only a few have an original voice, and I wasn't one of them. In the end, I couldn't figure out who to steal from, so I stopped doing it.