Nothing is original (great quote)

by | Thursday, June 10, 2010


Unoriginal

Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is nonexistent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery—celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: “It’s not where you take things from—it’s where you take them to.” — Jim Jarmusch

More Jim Jarmusch quotes here. Nice design of a layout for this quote here. Photo credit Emily Smith from flickr.

Topics related to this post: Art | Creativity | Film | Fun | Philosophy | Plagiarism

A few randomly selected blog posts…

Perspective Taking on creativity with Vlad Glaveanu

Perspective Taking on creativity with Vlad Glaveanu

Dr. Vlad Glaveanu, is Head of the Department of Psychology and Counseling at Webster University, Geneva; Associate Professor at Bergen University, and Director of the Webster Center for Creativity and Innovation. He co-edits the book series Palgrave Studies in...

véjà du for the first time ever!

I learned a new term today, véjà du. As we all know (didn't I write a posting about this earlier?) déjà vu (or paramnesia) from the French meaning “already seen” describes the experience of feeling that one has witnessed or experienced a new situation previously. It...

A defining moment!

Barack Obama is the democratic nominee for the president of the United States!!! Five months ago, after he had won the Iowa caucuses I had blogged his acceptance speech video (see it here) and had asked a question, "Is this a defining moment of our time?" Today I am...

Jugaad, India-genous creativity

Jugaad is a Hindi word which does not have a straight forward equivalent in English. I guess the closest phrase I would say would be "situational or indigenous creativity," the ability to make do creatively with the tools/resources one has at hand. On Jugadu.com I...

Vikram OR Vetaal, A Halloween Story (co-authored with AI)

Vikram OR Vetaal, A Halloween Story (co-authored with AI)

A few weeks back, Sean Leahy – friend, tech aficionado, futurist, and the co-host of the Learning Futures Podcast – reached out to me via email with an intriguing proposal. He was playing with the concept of harnessing generative AI to craft Halloween stories. The aim...

Of metaphors & molecules: Bridging STEM & the arts

Of metaphors & molecules: Bridging STEM & the arts

Update on blog post that was published May 30, 2018 - since the article is now published (2 years since it was accepted for publication). Square Root: Illustration by Punya Mishra What do President Kennedy's speeches have to do with cell biology? And what does the...

Unconscious competence, continuing the dialogue

Ken Friedman, whose article I had used as the basis of my previous posting, From incompetence to mastery, the stages dropped me an email in response to my critique. To provide some context, (you can read my full post here) I had suggested in my posting that it may be...

Technology & Education: A provocation

Technology & Education: A provocation

Jill Castek, at the University of Arizona, invited me to participate in an NSF funded workshop on developing "Principles for the equitable design of STEM learning environments." The event was being held at Bioshpere 2, which is this awesome place near Tucson. Because,...

3 Comments

  1. Punya Mishra

    @George, You are very welcome.
    @Joradan, thanks for regularly visiting the site and your comments.

    Reply
  2. George

    Thanks for the linkback.

    Reply

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *