Art Quotes

One of the surest tests [of the superiority or inferiority of a poet] 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 than that from which it is 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.

        — T.S. Eliot - The Sacred Wood: Essays on Poetry and Criticism. Philip Massinger (1922)

Good artists copy; great artists steal.

        — Pablo Picasso

Sometimes, I think Trent just needs a cup of hot chocolate and a blankie.

        — Tori Amos on Nine Inch Nails

If there's a movie of Neuromancer, what I really want the special effects guys to do is make you see, from Case's point of view, the little acid giggies: the little lines and trails coming off of things.

        — William Gibson

Out of the ashes of the music business, comes the rebirth of the musician business.

        — John Perry Barlow