“A society made up of individuals who were all capable of original thought would probably be unendurable.”
“Set me a task in which I can put something of my very self, and it is a task no longer. It is joy and art.”
“We are obliged to regard many of our original minds as crazy at least until we have become as clever as they are.”
“The more intelligent one is, the more men of originality one finds. Ordinary people find no difference between men.”
“Original thought is like original sin: both happened before you were born to people you could not have possibly met.”
“Let us not forget that the greatest composers were also the greatest thieves. They stole from everyone and everywhere.”
“It is a matter of perfect indifference where a thing originated; the only question is: ''Is it true in and for itself?''”
“Everything has been said, and we have come too late, now that men have been living and thinking for seven thousand years and more.”
“The first man to compare the cheeks of a young woman to a rose was obviously a poet; the first to repeat it was possibly an idiot.”
“Your manuscript is both good and original; but the parts that are good are not original, and the parts that are original are not good.”
“I found you essay to be good and original. However, the part that was original was not good and the part that was good was not original.”
“Create your own method. Don't depend slavishly on mine. Make up something that will work for you! But keep breaking traditions, I beg you.”
“The most original of authors are not so because they advance what is new, but more because they know how to say something, as if it had never been said before.”
“It's been very important throughout my career that I've met all the guys I've copied, because at each stage they've said, ''Don't play like me, play like you.''”
“Perhaps our originality manifests itself most strikingly in what we do with that which we did not originate. To discover something wholly new can be a matter of chance, of idle tinkering, or even of the chronic dissatisfaction of the untalented.”