“Art imitates life” is an old saying that dates back to at least ancient Greece. “Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life” is from

Oscar Wilde‘s 1889 essay, “The Decay of Lying.”
 
New York-born actor, comedian and filmmaker Woody Allen offered his own take in his film Husbands and Wives (1992);
 
“Life doesn’t imitate art. It imitates bad television.”
   
     
Wikipedia: Life imitating art
Anti-mimesis is a philosophical position that holds the direct opposite of Aristotelian mimesis. Its most notable proponent is Oscar Wilde, who opined in his 1889 essay The Decay of Lying that, “Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life”. In the essay, written as a Platonic dialogue, Wilde holds that anti-mimesis “results not merely from Life’s imitative instinct, but from the fact that the self-conscious aim of Life is to find expression, and that Art offers it certain beautiful forms through which it may realise that energy.”.
 
Wikipedia: Woody Allen
Heywood “Woody” Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg, December 1, 1935) is an American actor, comedian, filmmaker and playwright, whose career spans more than 50 years.
 
Wikipedia: Husbands and Wives
Husbands and Wives is a 1992 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Woody Allen.[2][3][4] The film stars Allen, Mia Farrow, Sydney Pollack, Judy Davis, Juliette Lewis, and Liam Neeson. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Judy Davis) and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen (Woody Allen). The film debuted shortly after the end of Allen and Farrow’s romantic and professional partnership, because of his relationship with Soon Yi Previn, and was their last film together to date. The movie is filmed by Carlo Di Palma with a handheld camera style and features documentary-like one-on-one interviews with the characters interspersed with the story.
     
Google News Archive
18 September 1992, Deseret News (Salt Lake City, UT), “Allen’s ‘Husbands and Wives’ echoes personal problems” by Chris Hicks, pg. W3, col. 4:
Even the one-liners have an edge (“Life doesn’t imitate art—it imitates bad television”) and the insights are equal parts amusing and painful, with an ambiguity in the end that leaves us to make up our own minds about what these people have gone through.
 
27 September 1992, Mobile (AL) Register, “What Woody Said” (AP), pg. 1-G, col. 5:
“Life doesn’t imitate art. It imitates bad television.”
 
Google Books
Woody Allen on Woody Allen:
In Conversation with Stig Björkman
By Woody Allen and Stig Björkman
New York, NY: Grove Press
2005
Pg. 90:
SB: Juliette Lewis says in Husbands and Wives that ‘Life doesn’t imitate art, it imitates bad television. ’
WA: Yes, I think that’s true.
 
Google Books
Oxford Dictionary of Humorous Quotations
By Gyles Brandreth
New York, NY: Oxford University Press
2013
Pg. 182:
Life doesn’t imitate art. It imitates bad television.
Woody Allen 1935– American film director, writer, and actor: Husbands and Wives (1992 film)
 
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Woody Allen: Life doesn’t imitate art, it imitates bad television. | #Quotes
4:23 AM - 25 Dec 2015