The original writer is not he who refrains from imitating others, but he who can be imitated by none.
L’écrivain original n’est pas celui qui n’imite personne, mais celui que personne ne peut imiter.
Original text (French)
Share this quote
Notes from Wikiquote
The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (1979) 3rd edition | As translated by Charles I. White (1856) Part 2, Book 1, Chapter 3 | Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (1980) 15th edition.
Variants
s:
The original style is not the style which never borrows of any one, but that which no other person is capable of reproducing.