Bill Laswell Quotes

I'm one of those guys a lot of people watch, imitate, and then make it seem like they were the ones who did it first.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

Lesser artists borrow, great artists steal.

I take stuff because I'm inspired by it.

I'm starting to see players copy what I do. I'm flattered.

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.

There was no one in particular I really tried to copy.

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

My cut is blunt and futuristic, and Nicki Minaj started wearing that bob on her head after she came to my show, so at the end of the day, I know what I do, and I know what I possess, and I know who I am. I'm a trendsetter. The biggest form of flattery is imitation, so I'm flattered.

The most original minds borrowed from one another.

Because when you're 10, 11, 12, 13, you see all these strokes and you want to copy them. And it's not easy to keep what you started with, if that makes sense.

Everybody trying to bite the style ever since we made 'Versace.' But they don't give us credit.

All art is theft.

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?

I've seen a lot of people stealing from what I do. Some people show love and say thank you and tell me how I was an inspired for them.