It is uncertain whether Pablo Picasso ever uttered those words. There's no record of it. However, it is certain that T.S. Elliott wrote [1] something along thos

It is uncertain whether Pablo Picasso ever uttered those words. There's no record of it. However, it is certain that T.S. Elliott wrote [1] something along those lines: One of the surest tests [of the superiority or inferiority of a poet] is the way in which a poet borrows. Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different. The good poet welds his theft into a whole of feeling which is unique, utterly different than that from which it is torn; the bad poet throws it into something which has no cohesion. A good poet will usually borrow from authors remote in time, or alien in language, or diverse in interest. [1] http://nancyprager.wordpress.com/2007/05/08/good-poets-borrow-great-poets-steal/ http://nancyprager.wordpress.com/2007/05/08/good-poets-borro...