"I steal from every movie ever made"
About this Quote
The subtext is part flex, part defense. Tarantino reframes originality as curation under pressure: take the stuff you love, recombine it with enough audacity and craft that it becomes yours. “Steal” lands harder than “influence” because it exposes the polite lie artists tell in interviews. Everyone borrows; he just refuses the euphemism. That bluntness also inoculates him against the most obvious criticism of his work: that his movies are mixtapes for cinephiles. If the charge is pre-admitted, the debate shifts to the real question - not whether he borrows, but whether the borrowing produces new pleasure, new meaning, new heat.
Context matters: Tarantino emerged from video-store omnivory, not film school reverence. His films behave like a hyperliterate fan’s argument with movie history, stitched from genres that were once dismissed as trash. The intent is cultural jujitsu: elevate exploitation, expose the canon as equally constructed, and insist that taste is an engine, not a credential. In Tarantino’s hands, theft isn’t a crime; it’s a method, and the swagger is the point.
Quote Details
| Topic | Movie |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Tarantino, Quentin. (2026, January 15). I steal from every movie ever made. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-steal-from-every-movie-ever-made-24071/
Chicago Style
Tarantino, Quentin. "I steal from every movie ever made." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-steal-from-every-movie-ever-made-24071/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I steal from every movie ever made." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-steal-from-every-movie-ever-made-24071/. Accessed 18 Feb. 2026.




