Re:When to Copy Ideas, When to Steal Ideas
by yesenadam on Thursday March 19, 2020 @04:19AM
(#22625561)
>"Good artists copy. Great artists steal"
Who said that? Steve Jobs? It seems so.
The tireless Quote Investigator[0] locates many sources, including a progenitor from the 19th C, but can't find Picasso (who Jobs credited) saying it.
I was familiar with the T.S. Eliot version "Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal", or in its context:
"One of the surest of tests is the way in which a poet borrows. Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different. The good poet welds his theft into a whole of feeling which is unique, utterly different from that from which it was torn; the bad poet throws it into something which has no cohesion. A good poet will usually borrow from authors remote in time, or alien in language, or diverse in interest."
The point of that is, in part, that good artists don't copy. Copying/imitation of the greats is how you learnt to make art, but it's part of learning, part of becoming an artist–not part of being one, let alone a good one.
I always think of the way Shakespeare took a plot, say King Lear, from historical sources, and made it his own. It's akin to a "cover" (in the rock music sense), but made so completely his own that every other version is forgotten.
Who said that? Steve Jobs? It seems so.
The tireless Quote Investigator[0] locates many sources, including a progenitor from the 19th C, but can't find Picasso (who Jobs credited) saying it.
I was familiar with the T.S. Eliot version "Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal", or in its context:
"One of the surest of tests is the way in which a poet borrows. Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different. The good poet welds his theft into a whole of feeling which is unique, utterly different from that from which it was torn; the bad poet throws it into something which has no cohesion. A good poet will usually borrow from authors remote in time, or alien in language, or diverse in interest."
The point of that is, in part, that good artists don't copy. Copying/imitation of the greats is how you learnt to make art, but it's part of learning, part of becoming an artist–not part of being one, let alone a good one.
I always think of the way Shakespeare took a plot, say King Lear, from historical sources, and made it his own. It's akin to a "cover" (in the rock music sense), but made so completely his own that every other version is forgotten.
[0] https://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/03/06/artists-steal/