A nice blend of prediction and surprise seem to be at the heart of the best art.
You repeat things because they're like your personal obsessions
Composition has almost always been solitary.
It's best to incorporate a broadly eclectic point of view, and let whatever moves you be your inspiration.
I suppose I was affected by raw sounds and timbres more than a lot of other composers. Had I been involved with orchestral composing, I think the aspect that would have most endeared me to that field would have been the orchestration.
I'm really a very weak musicologist. Wish it weren't so, but there's only so much you can dig deeply into in one lifetime, as if you hadn't noticed.