A real writer learns from earlier writers the way a boy learns from an apple orchard — by stealing what he has a taste for and can carry off.
Archibald MacLeish (1892–1982) American poet, writer, statesman
In Charles Poore, “Mr. MacLeish and the Disenchantmentarians,” The New York Times (25 Jan 1968)
(Source)
Quotations about:
homage
Note not all quotations have been tagged, so Search may find additional quotes on this topic.
Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal.
T. S. Eliot (1888-1965) American-British poet, critic, playwright [Thomas Stearns Eliot]
“Philip Massinger,” The Sacred Wood (1920)
Though old the thought and oft exprest,
‘Tis his at last who says it best.James Russell Lowell (1819-1891) American diplomat, essayist, poet
“For an Autograph,” Under the Willows and Other Poems (1868)
Abuse is an indirect species of homage.
William Hazlitt (1778-1830) English writer
“Common Places” (22), Literary Examiner (Sep-Dec 1823)
About the most originality that enny writer kan hope tew arrive at honestly, now-a-days, is tew steal with good judgment.
[About the most originality that any writer can hope to arrive at honestly, nowadays, is to steal with good judgment.]
Josh Billings (1818-1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Josh Billings on Ice, and Other Things, ch. 41 “Orphan Children” (1868)
(Source)
Variant: "About the most originality that any writer can hope to achieve honestly is to steal with good judgment."
And yet there is a degree to which […] all literature, highbrow or low, from the Aeneid onward, is fan fiction. […] Through parody and pastiche, allusion and homage, retelling and reimagining the stories that were told before us and that we have come of age loving — amateurs — we proceed, seeking out the blank places in the map that our favorite writers, in their greatness and negligence, have left for us, hoping to pass on to our own readers — should we be lucky enough to find any — some of the pleasure that we ourselves have taken in the stuff we love: to get in the game. All novels are sequels; influence is bliss.
Michael Chabon (b. 1963) American author
“Fan Fictions: On Sherlock Holmes,” Maps and Legends (2008)
