M. Ward Quotes

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

Picasso had a saying - 'good artists copy, great artists steal' - and we have always been shameless about stealing great ideas.

I take stuff because I'm inspired by it.

Blake is damned good to steal from.

I steal from every single movie ever made. I love it - if my work has anything it's that I'm taking this from this and that from that and mixing them together. If people don't like that, then tough titty, don't go and see it, all right? I steal from everything. Great artists steal; they don't do homages.

Artists, by definition innocent, don't steal. But they do borrow without giving back.

If an artist may say nothing except what he has invented by his own sole efforts, it stands to reason he will be poor in ideas. If he could take what he wants wherever he could find it, as Euripides and Dante and Michelangelo and Shakespeare and Bach were free, his larder would always be full, and his cookery might be worth tasting.

I don't think there's anything really wrong with influence because I think that one can use another man's art as material either literally or just implying that they're doing that, without it representing a lack of a point of view.

I don't believe in originality in art. I think we exist on this earth to inspire each other, through our actions, through our deeds, and through who we are. We're always borrowing.

The beauty of ideas is that they are like waves in the ocean and they connect with things that came before them, and I think it is very important to embrace things that interest you and influence you, and incorporate them into what you do, as all artists have always done. The ones that say they don’t, are lying. Or are afraid that their work won’t be seen as being original, somehow.

Minor artists borrow, great ones steal.

The big artist keeps an eye on nature and steals her tools.

Everyone steals from something or someone.

I'm always looking at other artists and trying to get inspired by different things.

I don't think I really invented anybody. I have drawn on real life.

Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal.

That is why the analogy of stealing does not work. With a thief, we want to know how much money he stole, and from whom. With the artist it is not how much he took and from whom, but what he did with it.

A good composer does not imitate; he steals.

It's intimidating any time to have a piece of art that someone else created, and that person says, 'Let's see what you created based on what I created.'

If you look at any creative person's work, you can see bits and pieces of their influences. That's what an artist does.

When I take from my influences, it's rare that I do it literally.

Sometimes, I think filmmakers grab too much from real life.

Good poets borrow; great poets steal.

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

I'm no innovator. If anything I'm a stealer, or borrower. I've stolen or borrowed from more people than you can shake a stick at.