Samuel R. Delany Quotes

Lesser artists borrow, great artists steal.

All art is theft.

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

There's nothing new, even 'new' is inspired by something. We're all, either consciously or unconsciously, we're inspired.

There's no shame in stealing - any actor who says he doesn't is lying. You steal from everything.

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

I take stuff because I'm inspired by it.

Being a cover artist is not like being a real artist. That's just copying what someone else did.

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.

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

Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal.

Somebody told me long ago that in acting, it's okay to steal, just steal from the best.

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'm a plagiarist - I always look back at other movies, and I steal, but I steal well, and I reinvent.

The only way you can get good, unless you're a genius, is to copy. That's the best thing. Just steal.

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

I'm not interested in replicating 'Hedwig' like a virus.

I'm just curious how it'd look like if someone tried to remake my work. But I really believe that it's hard to remake of any of my work.

Bad writers have influences. Good writers steal.

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

When a writer tries to copy another writer, it's doomed to fail.

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

Some of us have great original ideas and some of us depend on adaptations.

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.