Exploring Your Creative Genius: Episode 119
Last week’s show was built around creative sayings or quotes that I then riffed off of.
One of my favorites is a quote from Picasso. “Bad artists borrow, great artists steal.”
Borrowing has a sense of obligation; it’s temporary, polite, maybe even timid. The borrower treats the original with care, fearing overuse or distortion, as if the idea must eventually be returned intact.
But theft? Theft is liberation. To steal is to claim ownership, to dismantle and rebuild without apology. A thief doesn’t replicate—they reinvent, merging the stolen fragments seamlessly into their own vision so that its origin becomes irrelevant.
This distinction speaks to the heart of artistic courage, and in other contexts creative courage. Bad artists borrow because they lack the boldness to fully possess their influences. Great artists steal because they understand that true originality isn’t about purity—it’s about fearless recombination. Yes. Picasso stole from African masks but Shakespeare stole plots and Dylan stole melodies. Their genius wasn’t in imitation but in determined transformative possession.
Creativity isn’t about permission, it’s about power. The best art doesn’t ask for permission, it takes what it wants.
“Exploring Your Creative Genius” takes an expansive view on what it means to be creative and entrepreneurial in an ongoing conversation led by Carl Nordgren — entrepreneur, novelist, and lifelong student with decades of experience growing his own creative capacity and assisting others to do the same in exciting new ways!
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