Morgan Freeman Quotes

As actors you have this trait to imitate very easily. I don't want to imitate anything or limit myself of finding this creature, this woman because I'm looking at magazines and I'm reading comics, and I'm asking people that are avid readers of The Guardians.

I realized that I could try to sound like Waylon Jennings, or I could try to be like Waylon Jennings... but it's impossible to do both.

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

We all have idols. Play like anyone you care about but try to be yourself while you're doing so.

Once you start copying other people's licks, you begin thinking they're yours. Doing that's just an easy way out.

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

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.

Those who do not want to imitate anything, produce nothing.

There were times in my career when I would try to write songs like Bob Dylan... Artists get hooked up in that. To be a follower, you lose.

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.

Art is either plagiarism or revolution.

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.

They wanted me to play third like Brooks so I did play like Brooks - Mel Brooks.

It is quite annoying that we have to change the sound we invented just to avoid sounding like people who simply copy us, but... it is flattering and of course challenging.

I have never emulated any star or celebrity completely, and I hope nobody does the same of me.

When I was younger, I was emulating David Letterman. David Letterman would yell out of his office window with a megaphone, and the next thing I'm doing is standing on the roof of a parking garage with a megaphone.

Adopting mannerisms is called mimicry. That is not a good way to do things. You don't start to imitate somebody, the way he walks and talks, that is a very irrelevant element of acting.

I used to watch everybody's stuff, but I found I would get slightly influenced by the other comics. I try to avoid it now.

I never really modeled my game after anybody.

Everyone always gets a little irritated by imitators, but mostly I'm flattered. What if you never did anything anyone wanted to copy?

If you can't imitate him, don't copy him.

Most of us only find our own voices after we've sounded like a lot of other people.

I don't care anymore if people dress like me, now I want them to think like me.

I think the beauty of the film industry is that if another person tries to become another person or act like another person or imitate another person, they don't really get too far. When that person starts to realize who they are and what they can bring to the table, they start to blossom and grow. With that, it's not so much me looking towards my predecessors who have paved the way in the industry - it's more getting inspired. I get little bits and pieces of what I can take from any and everybody.