Honore de Balzac Quotes

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.

I got everything from someone. Nobody can be original.

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

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.

I have no shame in making music that maybe, if you listen to it long enough, you'll realize you've heard this or that part of it before.

I can recommend nothing better... than that you endeavor to infuse into your works what you learn from the contemplation of the works of others.

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

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

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

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

I take stuff because I'm inspired by it.

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.

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.

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.

Most of us don't invent ideas. We take the best ideas from someone else.

Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal.

If you look at the most meaningful science fiction, it didn't come from watching other films. We seem to be in a place now where filmmakers make films based on other films because that's where the stimuli and influence comes from.

Originality is the fine art of remembering what you hear but forgetting where you heard it.

I am playing in a playground that's already been played in. I am always aware that a lot of the furniture in science fiction is second hand.

All too often, when creative people pick out someone else's creative work as an inspiration, what they end up with is very, very far from the original.

I feel like everything is inspired by something else. There is no 100 percent original thought.

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

I borrow bits from everyone.

The most original minds borrowed from one another.