What I’m trying to tell people is that they shouldn’t be held back by the great stuff other people have done. Brahms is the classic example here. He was a consummate musician, and because he was so respectful of the great composers and of Beethoven in particular, he could not get out his first symphony until he was in his mid-forties. What a waste of time that was, what a waste. And all because Brahms was totally intimidated. And you know what? There’s a kind of arrogance in that intimidation. We think it has to do with modesty. To the contrary, it has to do with Brahms going, “Goddammit, my first symphony is not going to be better than Beethoven’s Ninth.” And excuse me, probably it’s not going to be, so why don’t you just do it and get on with things?

Personally, I don’t worry about originality at all. Has anyone ever done what I’ve done before? Yeah, probably. But I’m not going to worry about it; I’m going to use it and get on with it.

Choreographer Twyla Tharp, Harvard Business Review