Man in Quotes!

Can there possibly be a more insulting thought – especially to an artist or cosmopolite -- than “I am just a product of my times, of my people, of the town in which I grew up. My thoughts are not my own, no matter how much I enjoy thinking so. I have culled them, consciously or not, from the thoughts of others, who in turn have gotten their thoughts from the minds of better thinkers.” In fact, what am I but a man in quotes?