The Written Word Is a Lie

“You steal ideas, you steal sentences,” he says, “if you are a creative person. If you don’t know how to steal, you don’t know how to create.” It is like a cow eating grass, to use one of Hoffer’s favorite metaphors. “The cow does not become grass,” says Hoffer, “the grass turns into cow.” Quotations, thoughts, a turn of phrase, and ideas in general taken from other writers are alfalfa to the creative person. — James Koerner, Hoffer’s America Let no one say I have said nothing new; the arrangement of the material is new. In playing tennis both players use the same ball, but one plays it better. I would just as soon be told that I have used old words. As if the same thoughts did not form a different argument by being differently arranged, just as the same words make different thoughts by being arranged differently! — Pascal, Pensées Originality is often treated as if it had to be immaculate conception. A thought must arrive unsullied by influence, untouched by other minds, bearing no…