The kernel, the soul โ let us go further and say the substance, the bulk, the actual and valuable material of all human utterances โ is plagiarism. For substantially all ideas are secondhand, consciously and unconsciously drawn from a million outside sources, and daily used by the garnerer with a pride and satisfaction born of the superstition that he originated them; whereas there is not a rag of originality about them anywhere except the little discoloration they get from his mental and moral caliber and his temperament, and which is revealed in characteristics of phrasing.
โ from “The Ecstasy of Influence” by Jonathan Lethem
