In the end it doesn't matter what you do.
The piece that had a large influence on me was Turangalila.
This sounds horribly pretentious, but I like to think that if music hadn't existed, I could have invented it.
Minimalism now is a reaction to what came before. It's absolutely of its time. Music moved into the set theory thing, and moved out of it.
You either are or you're not.
I don't have ideas so much as there are things which constantly evolve... there are various threads or layers, if you like, which change.