Life & Wisdom Quote by Mason Cooley

Cooley’s line is a neat little contraband package: it smuggles a defense of copying into a culture that pretends genius arrives immaculate. “Art begins in imitation” isn’t an insult; it’s a description of the apprenticeship every artist goes through, whether they admit it or dress it up as “influence.” The verb begins does a lot of work here, framing imitation not as a moral failure but as the first, necessary motion. You learn the instrument by playing other people’s songs. You learn the sentence by borrowing someone else’s rhythm.

The second half sharpens the blade. “Ends in innovation” turns the usual myth of originality into a destination rather than a birthright. Cooley implies that innovation is not an attitude, it’s an outcome earned through repetition, constraint, and intimate study of what already works. There’s also a quiet warning embedded in ends: if you never outgrow imitation, your art never completes itself. You’re stuck in tribute mode, feeding the past without adding to it.

Context matters: Cooley wrote in an era when modernism and postmodernism were busy arguing over whether originality was sacred or a sham. His aphorism splits the difference with the economy of a writer who knows that artists lie to themselves. We want to believe our best work is spontaneous; Cooley insists it’s metabolized. The subtext is permission and pressure at once: copy bravely at the start, but don’t confuse the doorway for the room.