So, I will break this down in my own perspective. "Good writers borrow..." to me means that the writer is opening their essay with a quote and crediting the source. So they are borrowing the quote from another writer. "...Great writers steal" to me means that a writer read what another writer composed and decided to write their own piece based off of the emotions they felt while reading the original writer's work. If that was worded a little too weird, I'll say it differently for you lol. Say a student is trying to write a paper. He decides to read another writer's words to get some inspiration. While reading the writer's piece, the student felt an intense emotion and decided to write his paper based off of that emotion. He felt so strongly about something that someone else wrote down, that he decided to take the writer's words and translate them into his own meaning. So rather than borrowing the source, he stole from it.
That is just what I got out of this quote. I don't in any way mean that great writers plagiarize because that would go against the student ethnics :) But getting inspiration from someone else's words is a powerful thing, especially when one decides to write down their emotions. I believe the most amazing pieces are written when someone is feeling an over-load on a certain emotion. That is why I believe great writers steal rather than just temporarily use a quote and credit it.
i continue to agree with this quote. The way you broke it down was interesting as well. despite the fact that i agree with this idea, i can also see why some might be against it. Some might think that to borrow or steal from another writer shows a lack in uniqueness and originality. In the end it all depends on how everything is put together. plagiarism continues to be frowned upon and viewed as absolutely unacceptable in educational institutions, so i guess borrowing or slightly stealing ideas is a nice way of not being accused of plagiarism. Like you said its all about the inspiration.
ReplyDeleteI see what you are saying. I also agree that great writers have a great inspiration. I think that great writers get an inspiration from somewhere and give their interpretation of the idea in a way that most people would never be able to. If everyone could have the gift of truly expressing themselves on a piece of paper then what would differentiate the good writers from the great.
ReplyDelete"Good writers borrow, great writers steal." This quote can be interpreted in many different ways but I defiantly agree with your interpretation of it. I believe that good writers borrow ideas and concepts while great writers steal them and run away with it turning it into their own masterpiece. Great writers have great inspiration and change the ideas into their own thoughts and their own feelings.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your interpretation of this quote. The word "steal" is usually taken literally, but in this quote it shouldn't be. Writers don't litterally steal from other writers, they steal the emotions and write their own versions of the story.
ReplyDeleteI would take the word "steal" literally. I think when a writer writes, he may or may not know that he is stealing ideas from many authors. Humans are more alike than everyone thinks. Ideas have been passed down numerous times that we don't know who is the beholder of that idea.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you! Great writers are able to steal a piece and turn it into their own work of art by capturing the emotions. Good writers cite quotes because they cannot interpret emotions as well. I love the way the quote uses borrowing and stealing to describe how writers get their ideas. Plagiarism and Inspiration are two very different things. As long as the writer is citing properly or writing with their own twist of emotions, then they are not plagiarizing.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you are saying as well. Sometimes things people write are inspired by other writers or other people. They aren't stealing what they said, they are just expressing their opinions about the situation and possibly expanding on the topic. Sure they can quote the other author, but they might not be stealing, just using them as a reference or giving them credit for their ideas. They could also be debating or opposing what the other writer was discussing so they might also want to use them as a reference.
ReplyDeleteI feel the same way about this. I feel like we are all inspired by the different things we read. Sometimes before I have to write a paper I read other works to get me inspired. If I take something specific from the work I site the source of course. Most of the time it's good to just use emotion instead of quotes to express the feelings you are trying to convey to the reader.
ReplyDeleteI like the end of your blog when you said you think great writing comes when a writer has an overload of that emotion. I think when they have that overload the emotion can easily flow straight from the mess of crap going on in their head straight onto the paper, or into the blog, or even into the songs; whatever they happen to be writing. I don’t know for sure but it seems like that might be common source of awesome, passion driven writings.
ReplyDeleteI actually can agree with what your saying. I don't think that the word stealing should always be taken literally. Obviously something like plagiarism should be seen as a negative stealing, but there are positive ways to look at the word too.
ReplyDeleteI always took the word "steal" literally in this quote. I really like the way you interpreted the quote and definitely agree. I personally would not call being inspired by someone's work and using that as inspiration for your own work as stealing though. I can see how this phrase could be interpreted in a negative way.
ReplyDeleteI AGREE! The best pieces are definitely written when someone feels heavy of a certain emotion. I consider myself only a good writer when I am emotional! I mean I have written things that were pretty good without being emotional but they certainly did not make as much of an impact as the works that I wrote when I was feeling something so strong. Also, I tend to use quotes a lot in my writing which I guess makes me a stealer, but in my opinion it is the best way to get inspired!
ReplyDeleteThis is a completely different interpretation of the quote. I love how we wrote about the same quote but in separate aspects. I agree with you too though. Im pretty sure we can all agree that great writers don't plagerize because then it would be very obvious. Great writers do get inspire by other though, I'm sure lots of writer were inspired by Shakespeare and Robert Frost. you guys pretty much know my stance on the quote based on my blog though.
ReplyDeleteI agree that a lot of great work is probably written from emotion, but just because you feel a certain way about something doesn't mean that you are stealing. It is one thing to read somebody's work and get a feeling from it and then go write a story that has nothing to do with the one that they just read, it is another thing to read somebody's story and then to re-write it in your own words. That is stealing.
ReplyDeleteThe way you describe the quote makes understanding it a whole lot easier. By stealing, meaning inspiring, a writer is better able to express their own ideas. I think what makes this quote so obtuse is the loose-ness of the term stealing. I think the way you interpret the world stealing pretty much determines how you view the quote.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. Writers who borrow others work are only "good" because when the writer quotes he/she losses the impact of their own words and emotions. Great writers, on the other hand, do not need to borrow someone else's work because their words can stand on their own. Some of my best work resulted from my passion about a subject, and how I wanted nothing more than to throughly and vividly explain it with my own words. This is due to the emotional connection the writer has to their work, like you said. They may "steal" inspiration from other writers, but they gain a new perspective and write about that rather than the work of the other writer.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you. This is exactly what I thought the quote meant at first! I liked how you broke it down into the both quotes and explained it. I think the most important thing that a writer could do is connect to their audience and by doing that they have to spill out their inner feelings and put them on paper.
ReplyDeleteI agree with everything you said. Inspiration creates innovation in many areas of life including writing. It is hard to do anything without basing it off of someone that is great at it. For example if you are terrible at something studying how someone great does the activity will inspire you to do the same and learn at the same time. My only problem is that the quote uses the word "steal" which has a negative connotation. I think using another term would better express what the quote truly means.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that "stealing" is taken too literal. Inspiration is the word that I associate stealing with in the quote. Almost every idea has been written about already and when someone else writes about it, it isn't plagiarizing or actual theft of someone else's work. It is simply an extension of an idea, emotion, or thought.
ReplyDeleteI agree. I like the way you translated this quote because it really give it perspective. In a way, we're all thieves, because we can't always just pull inspiration out of our head. Sometimes as writers we struggle, so we need to use others word to interpret our own thoughts
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