I love Questlove's technique of externalizing his creativity as "influences." How would so and so make this music. How would such and such an artist draw this painting? It makes it so that it's not so much a creative act of your own individual will being aware of technique, and more imitative process that's may be a little bit easier to distance yourself from with your ego. It addresses a creative person’s pressure to have ideas: it’s more how to capture them without being captured by them. How to take them and turn them into things.

“Original" can be a crutch word that people use when they don't understand where something came from. In other words they don't recognize the influences that went into that artist creating that thing. A similar form of creativity identified by Quest love is when you love something in the world so much and you want more of that you decide to make some of it yourself. In this, the imitation is more overt, rather than trying to be 50% Sinatra, 40% Jack White, and 10% your brother.

Other takeaways:
There are patterns and links to everything. You have to be open to them. It's more than a metaphor, it's a state.
Traditional alertness is the enemy of creativity. Feeling fatigued lets the creative thoughts through.