Almost certainly not. No letter, interview or recorded conversation has turned up in which Pablo Picasso says "Good artists copy, great artists steal." Quote Investigator, the research site that traces famous lines to their sources, found no solid evidence for the attribution.
The sentence has a family tree, and Picasso is its youngest branch. Poets, critics and composers passed it around for almost a century before his name was attached to it.
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The first printed credit to Picasso that Quote Investigator found ran in the Sydney Morning Herald on 11 April 1988, in an article about lawsuits between computer companies. Picasso had been dead for fifteen years.
The paper reported that Steve Jobs kept a Picasso quote in mind while his team built the Macintosh: "Good artists copy. Great artists steal." I don't believe Picasso said it, and the paper trail explains why.
Jobs did not invent the sentence either. By 1988 it had been circulating for nearly a century, and it had worn other people's names before it wore Picasso's.
What You'll Discover
Who wrote it first, and meant the opposite.
Three men who got the credit before him.
What Steve Jobs said on camera.
What he denied about his breakthrough painting.
What sat in his studio for years.