Billie Holiday Quotes

The imitator dooms himself to hopeless mediocrity. The inventor did it because it was natural to him, and so in him it has a charm. In the imitator something else is natural, and he bereaves himself of his own beauty, to come short of another man's.

Originality is a quality that cannot be imitated. The technique of the language, on the other hand, is something that belongs to all who can understand it.

It's hard work to find your own voice and not to copycat anything.

You can't copy anybody and end with anything. If you copy, it means you're working without any real feeling.

Posterity weaves no garlands for imitators.

The only thing I really recommend, if you're starting out in stand-up is to not try to copy anybody else. You can be influenced by people. I was influenced by Steve Martin and Bob Newhart and Woody Allen, but I never tried to be someone else. I always tried to be myself. And the reason people are successful is they're unique.

I wanted to be that quirky girl who writes funny songs that still have meaning.

Being a cover artist is not like being a real artist. That's just copying what someone else did.

There were times in my career when I would try to write songs like Bob Dylan... Artists get hooked up in that. To be a follower, you lose.

Nature is commonplace. Imitation is more interesting.

I'd rather do my own performance than copy someone else's.

Sometimes you find your voice by trying to write like people, and sometimes you find it by trying to write unlike people.

I don't want nobody to ever say, 'I coulda done that beat' or 'I know where you got that from.'

The more you see somebody else's version of something, the harder it is to make it your own.

I used to watch everybody's stuff, but I found I would get slightly influenced by the other comics. I try to avoid it now.

If you can't imitate him, don't copy him.

If you're going to be an artist, you need to be an original.

Go and see what others have produced, but never copy anything except nature. You would be trying to enter into a temperament that is not yours and nothing that you would do would have any character.

Do not imitate one another's style. If you do, so far as your art is concerned you will be called a grandson, rather than the son of Nature.

As for me, the only stuff I've ever had success with is when I'm trying to be completely original and not thinking about mirroring what else is out there.

When a writer tries to copy another writer, it's doomed to fail.

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

We all have idols. Play like anyone you care about but try to be yourself while you're doing so.

We call ourselves creators and we just copy.

I've never really tried to copy anyone; I like to have my own style.