To copy others is necessary, but to copy oneself is pathetic.

as poets, as writers, as artists we can copy others, but it is very dangerous to copy one's self.

When someone copies you, they are copying a moment in time. They don’t know the thinking that went into getting you to that moment in time, and they won’t know the thinking that’ll help you have a million more moments in time. They’re stuck with what you left behind.

Start copying what you love. Copy copy copy copy. At the end of the copy you will find your self.

Start copying what you love. Copy copy copy copy. At the end of the copy you will find your self.” — Yohji Yamamoto

Start copying what you love. Copy copy copy copy. At the end of the copy you will find your self.'-Yohji Yamamoto

You need not copy people blindly, else you will find yourself wanting.

A lot of my life is just copying things that I see. There's not a lot of original thought here. There truly is not. I mean, we can all pretend we're all fucking geniuses. Honestly, be good copiers. Do you know what I'm saying? It's the best thing in the world. Like, be around high-functioning, high-quality people and just copy the shit that they do. Observe the shit that's you know kind of crappy and don't so that stuff. It's not a fucking complicated formula.

First, you have to figure out who to copy. Second, you have to figure out what to copy.

Copying is not theft Stealing a thing leaves one less left Copying it makes one thing more That's what copying's for. Copying isn't theft If I copy yours, you have it too One for me and one for you That's what copies can do. If I steal your bicycle, You have to take the bus But if I just copy it, There's one for each of us! Making more of a thing That is what we call copying Sharing ideas with everyone That's why copying... ...Is fun!

when you’re competing with people, it’s because you’re copying them.

Copying is about reverse-engineering.

I wanted to say to you: when you copy something you also copy the modifications based on the learning from the original; only a fool starts from scratch and does not base his decisions on the learning of others. In science, we use the modifications found by others long ago to the most recent, as the basis of new findings; not going back to discover and learn what others have learnt. Human knowledge and development and civilization will not have progressed if each new generation and society did not build on the knowledge of others before them

We’re talking about practice here, not plagiarism — plagiarism is trying to pass someone else’s work off as your own. Copying is about reverse-engineering. It’s like a mechanic taking apart a car to see how it works.