Honore de Balzac Quotes

What is originality? Undetected plagiarism.

Imitation isn't the sincerest form of flattery - it's plagiarism.

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

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 call ourselves creators and we just copy.

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

The best imitation in the world is not half as good as a poor original.

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

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

Posterity weaves no garlands for imitators.

Originality is undetected plagiarism.

Lesser artists borrow, great artists steal.

To copy others is necessary, but to copy oneself is pathetic.

Well, you might as well imitate your own program because if you don't, someone else will.

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 decided that if my work contained what I could identify as a likeness to other work, I would remove 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.

I got everything from someone. Nobody can be original.

Hey, Christian rock, if you want to be good, stop copying U2. U2 already did it. You know what I mean? There's a lot of U2-esque Christian rock.

If you copy, it means you're working without any real feeling. No two people on earth are alike, and it's got to be that way in music or it isn't music.

Originality is the art of concealing your source.

Plagiarists, at least, have the merit of preservation.

Taking something from one man and making it worse is plagiarism.