Here's the whole essay where he made the "lesser author" comment: https://medium.com/@Powells/how-i-wrote-life-of-pi-6ffe1c0177ac https://medium.com/@Powells/h

Here's the whole essay where he made the "lesser author" comment: https://medium.com/@Powells/how-i-wrote-life-of-pi-6ffe1c0177ac https://medium.com/@Powells/how-i-wrote-life-of-pi-6ffe1c017... He made that comment as a hypothetical in the context of a really bad book review. He even said in the very next sentence that the book may possibly have been very well written. I don't think he's trying to make any personal attack. My personal opinion on plagiarism is that everything is fair game as long as it's clearly acknowledged upfront.