David Hockney Quotes

Style is something you can use, and you can be like a magpie, just taking what you want. The idea of the rigid style seemed to me then something you needn't concern yourself with, it would trap you.

What I've learned is that it's okay to take from heroes, such as Debussy, but it has to be filtered through my own personality so that ultimately it's me.

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

Eclecticism is the word. Like a jazz musician who creates his own style out of the styles around him, I play by ear.

I borrow bits from everyone.

I get influence from everybody and everything.

You can't just copy someone. There are so many different styles that you can just kind of pick and choose whatever it is you'd like to do.

We all steal, but if we're smart we steal from great directors. Then, we can call it influence.

We all borrow and steal and copy from each other, and that's the way I think people get inspired.

The last thing you want to do as a creator is take something of someone else's when you love him.

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

Don't be afraid to borrow. The great men, the most original, borrowed from everybody.

Don't be afraid to borrow if someone else has said it well. Winston Churchill said, The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it and ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is. That's so well said. You could stay up all night and not think of that.

If you think a man draws the type of hands that you want to draw, steal ‘em. Take those hands.

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

Future's not everybody. The people who are taking my style are like my babies. I've got a tribe of kids that want to be like me... But I understand why people want to imitate the things I do. They're dope. It comes naturally to me. My fans can expect greatness. If I wasn't me, I would want to be me.

Originality is undetected plagiarism.

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

Nobody really invents anything that hasn't been done before.

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

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.

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

Fashion isn't interesting when it comes from an uninspired place.

Personality is everything in art and poetry.

I take stuff because I'm inspired by it.