“Immature artists imitate. Mature artists steal.” Lionel Trilling wrote that, and a lot of other writers have said pretty much the same thing: among them Tom Lehrer, Alexander Pope and Quentin Tarantino – an eclectic bunch. I guess by that they mean ideas are public property, available to anyone: the important part is what you do with them.
And once again the immortal Dr. Johnson had something to say on the subject when he wrote to some unfortunate, “Your manuscript is both good and original; but the part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good.” Kind of proves the point, doesn’t it?
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