My goal as a creator is to do something that no one else did. It's a low bar when you think about it, but sometimes a high one too, and also my life goal, just to have done or affected something that would not have happened unless I did it. I find that deeply gratifying, and dead serious, because life and death is real. And so whatever art I attempt is in keen awareness of that reality, of this temporary writing room.

That said, anything we do is something no one else could have done, at least not the same way. So when one band plays another bands song, it rocks anew—it's unique. Plagiarism is a legal thing, but covering, stealing, freely adapting, mangling, reinterpreting, massacring, is all just more art and unique performance to me. Legally I think Zeppelin are pretty much always guilty in any lawsuit...they were just so blatantly lazy about rewriting well-known lyrics even slightly to make them new, and then wondered why it wasn't taken as a tribute when they called them originals, not covers. But artistically, I'll be happily listening to their entire catalog for the rest of my life. They effen rock.

http://www.soundclick.com/MarkKaufman