If I'm talking to someone a lot ofvthe time I'm going to be putting together words in a way that has probably never been done by anyone else before - and that's not because I'm trying to be original, it's becqause I've got something to say and I'm using the words that come to mind as the best way to say it.

Sometimes I might use some figure of speech, a simile or a comparison, or add a bit of colour, but it's not abouit originality, it's about communication or persuasion or something like that. A bit like using a quote to sum up something, but thisntime it's a quote I make up myself.

Making songs isn't that different. You might pick an image to paint a picture, or point a listener in a particular direction; you might quote a line or a tune from somewhere for the same kind of reason.

The result is orioginal, a new song you've written is soemthing that hasn'ty existed in the world before, amd that is satifying in itself, especially if it seems like a good song. But originality isn't what you are really aiming at, and it's definitely not the measure of whether something is good.

"That William Shakespeare is rubbish. He pinched all hisnplots from other people."

"All this folk music sounds the same to me."