Picasso had a saying - 'good artists copy, great artists steal' - and we have always been shameless about stealing great ideas.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes that taking inspiration from others is a key part of creativity and innovation.
Walter Isaacson's quote reflects on the idea that while many artists and creators may draw from the work of others, truly great artists take this a step further by assimilating and transforming those ideas into something unique. This 'stealing' of ideas is not about plagiarism, but rather about understanding and reinventing what has already been done, leading to more profound and original expressions of creativity.
In practice
In a speech about innovation at a conference, I might quote this to encourage embracing ideas from various sources.
I visited Jobs for the last time in his Palo Alto, Calif., home. He had moved to a downstairs bedroom because he was too weak to go up and down stairs. He was curled up in some pain, but his mind was still sharp and his humor vibrant
I've always had an abundance of material about the subjects of my biographies.
Polite and velvety leaders, who take care to avoid bruising others, are generally not as effective at forcing change.
for Steve, less is always more, simpler is always better. Therefore, if you can build a glass box with fewer elements, it’s better, it’s simpler, and it’s at the forefront of technology. That’s where Steve likes to be, in both his products and his stores.
What are the five products you want to focus on? Get rid of the rest, because they’re dragging you down. They’re turning you into Microsoft. They’re causing you to turn out products that are adequate but not great.
When there are multiple versions of a story, you really have three ways to go. You can pick the most sensational version. You can try to balance things in your gut to get to what you think is the honest truth. Or you can err on the side of kindness.
And the reason I am writing this on the back of a manila envelope now that they have left the train together is to tell you that when she turned to lift the large, delicate cello onto the overhead rack, I saw him looking up at her and what she was doing the way the eyes of saints are painted when they are looking up at God when he is doing something remarkable, something that identifies him as God.
To insist on purity is to baptize instinct, to humanize art, and to deify personality.
I am trying to counter the fixity of architectures, their stolidity, with elements that give an ineffable immaterial quality.
To be a film-maker, you have to lead. You have to be psychotic in your desire to do something. People always like the easy route. You have to push very hard to get something unusual, something different.
An actor entering through the door, you've got nothing. But if he enters through the window, you've got a situation.
Everyone who makes a film is at the major distributors' mercy.
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