…a genius is simply a person who originates something never known before. Nobody but Melville could have written Moby-Dick, not even Whitman or Shakespeare. Nobody but Whitman could have written Leaves of Grass; Whitman was born to write Leaves of Grass and Melville was born to write Moby-Dick.

~ Jack Kerouac from, Are Writers Born or Made? Jack Kerouac on the Crucial Difference Between Talent and Genius

ɕ