my prof quoted t.s. elliot today:

"Bad poets borrow; good poets steal."

apparantly with the context it becomes clear that what he means is copying someone else's ideas or style or whatever leads to art that is only a copy, but if you take the ideas and internalize them and let them influence your _own_ ideas, you'll end up with art that's new and fresh but still linked in with the brightness of other minds. after all, there can't be anything completelytotallyentirely new because no one creates art in a vacuum, and anyone who says different is lying to themselves.

that said, i don't really care how people sing so long as they're singin'. unless i paid money to go see them, in which case i want to see something unique and brilliant. i can see a copy for free.