Richard Paul Evans Quotes

If you can't plagiarise yourself, who can you plagiarise?

Borrowed eloquence, if it contains as good stuff, is as good as own eloquence

You create identity, you're not given identity per se. What became more and more interesting to me wasn't the I, it was text because it's text that create identity. That's how I got interested in plagiarism.

Who speaks is not who writes, and who writes is not who is.

When I write characters, I need to hear their voice. As soon as I get them speaking, and I feel how they use language, I understand who they are and what they want.

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

Originality is undetected plagiarism.

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

No, generally I think influence is used as a nice word for plagiarism.

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

If you copy then it is not self-expression.

I got everything from someone. Nobody can be original.

The words that come direct from the people are the greatest... If you substitute one out of your own vocabulary, it disappears before your eyes.

I don't want it to be all that self-conscious or artificial, but it really grows out of my having invented myself as a listener so that I could hear her voice.

I want everyone to express themselves in a unique way.

What is originality? Undetected plagiarism.

I knew that I had to find my own voice, both figuratively and literally.

Words are really beautiful, but they're limited. Words are very male, very structured. But the voice is the netherworld, the darkness, where there's nothing to hang onto. The voice comes from a part of you that just knows and expresses and is.

Be original. That's my best advice. You're going to find that there's something that you do well, and try to do it with as much originality as you can, and don't skimp on the words. Work on the words.

The best thing an actor can bring to a role is himself - that's no secret.

You want to stake your own claim. You don't want to be called a copycat.

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

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

I firmly believe in copyrights and am put off by plagiarism.

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