“I know these writers, they say “borrow” when they mean “steal.””

ibid
The Rahotep series, Book 2: Tutankhamun
Context: Be careful, Rahotep, I know these writers, they say “borrow” when they mean “steal.” You will soon read your words coming back to you on some privately circulated scroll of new verse.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "I know these writers, they say “borrow” when they mean “steal.”" by Nick Drake (poet)?
Nick Drake (poet) photo
Nick Drake (poet) 41
British writer 1961

Related quotes

S.M. Stirling photo

“Bad writers have influences. Good writers steal.”

S.M. Stirling (1953) Canadian-American author, primarily of speculative fiction

Dragon Page Cover to Cover interview, Episode 372A (8 September 2009)

Michel De Montaigne photo

“Amongst so many borrowed things, I am glad if I can steal one, disguising and altering it for some new service.”

Book III, Ch. 12. Of Physiognomy
Essais (1595), Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Doris Lessing photo

“Borrowing is not much better than begging; just as lending with interest is not much better than stealing.”

Doris Lessing (1919–2013) British novelist, poet, playwright, librettist, biographer and short story writer

I, who ne'er
Went for myself a begging, go a borrowing,
And that for others. Borrowing's much the same
As begging; just as lending upon usury
Is much the same as thieving.
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Nathan the Wise (1779), Act II, scene II http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext03/natws10.txt
Misattributed

Ludwig Wittgenstein photo
Nalo Hopkinson photo

“…There’s still this notion that you are somehow morally superior if you don’t know anything about the background of the writers you read, and I maintain that writers have every right to not talk their backgrounds, that’s fine, but when people do and it’s important to their work, to not know doesn’t mean you’re morally superior, it means you are indifferent…”

Nalo Hopkinson (1960) Jamaican Canadian writer

On the author having the right to reveal anything personal that’s significant to them in “Interview: Nalo Hopkinson” http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/nonfiction/interview-nalo-hopkinson/ in Lightspeed (June 2013)

Tom Clancy photo
Willie Mays photo

“You're not from New York, are you? You can't be from New York. Well, when I broke in, I didn't know many people by name so I would just say, "Say, hey," and the writers picked that up. The writers here in New York can make anything happen, so they made that happen.”

Willie Mays (1931) Baseball player

As quoted in "Sports of the Times: The Most Natural Ballplayer" https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=UVUcAAAAIBAJ&sjid=p1EEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6465%2C2456085&dq=who%27s-best-ever-aside-yourself-next-roberto by Dave Anderson, in The New York Times (January 24, 1979)

William Faulkner photo
Jean-Luc Godard photo
Maya Angelou photo

“I know when it’s the best I can do. It may not be the best there is. Another writer may do it much better. But I know when it’s the best I can do.”

Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American author and poet

Paris Review Interview (1990)
Context: I know when it’s the best I can do. It may not be the best there is. Another writer may do it much better. But I know when it’s the best I can do. I know that one of the great arts that the writer develops is the art of saying, No. No, I’m finished. Bye. And leaving it alone. I will not write it into the ground. I will not write the life out of it. I won’t do that.

Related topics