“Good artists borrow, great artists steal.”
- Steve Jobs/Picasso/Stravinsky/Eliot
- Steve Jobs/Picasso/Stravinsky/Eliot
“Good artists borrow [by modifying ideas], great artists steal [by copying ideas].”
It was a reference to Apple apocryphally stealing "the mouse, windows, icons, and other technologies that had been developed at [Xerox] PARC" [1].
They didn't copy an existing product. They deprived Xerox of the market into which to launch their own product.
Great artists realize perfection when they see it and just copy it, without trying to “improve” it, usually from lesser known, less successful artists so they get away with it.