Plagiarism in Fiction/Quotes

"If you copy from one author, it's plagiarism; if you copy from many, it's research."

—Wilson Mizner

Cropper: "In short, sir, Mrs Ogg seems to believe that writing a book largely involves copying things out of other books and pasting them onto any bits of plain paper she can find, then signing them "G. Ogg" in crayon."

Goatberger: "You're telling me that Mrs Ogg has simply recycled bits of more than a dozen books?"

Cropper: "In a word, yes."

Goatberger: "The cunning old biddy! Then it counts as research and is perfectly OK. Don't worry about it."

—The publishers of Nanny Ogg's Cookbook