Steve Jobs: Good artists copy. Great artists steal.
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Re: Steve Jobs: Good artists copy. Great artists steal.
#2Anyway, "stealing makes you a good artist" doesn't follow.
Re: Steve Jobs: Good artists copy. Great artists steal.
#3Anyway, "stealing makes you a good artist" doesn't follow.
Well, not if you interpret "stealing" as "misappropriating," but I don't think the quote is quite that literal. My interpretation of it is that good artists "borrow," that is, they take elements from others but they still belong to others. Great artists, however, "steal," meaning that they take elements from others and make them their own to the point where we start identify those elements with the "thief" instead of the originator. Someone who succeeds in doing that is probably a pretty damn good artist.
Re: Steve Jobs: Good artists copy. Great artists steal.
#4Just to be a bit precise: that quote is actually from Picasso. His version was "bad artists copy, good artists steal"
Re: Steve Jobs: Good artists copy. Great artists steal.
#5Anyway, "stealing makes you a good artist" doesn't follow.
Well, not if you interpret "stealing" as "misappropriating," but I don't think the quote is quite that literal. My interpretation of it is that good artists "borrow," that is, they take elements from others but they still belong to others. Great artists, however, "steal," meaning that they take elements from others and make them their own to the point where we start identify those elements with the "thief" instead of…
Yup, that's the most likely interpretation. What I meant was "just taking elements from others doesn't automatically make them perceived as your own".