It might help to set the conventional image of the creative artist, alone and suffering in a garret, against other versions of creativity. What does a truly creative footballer do? Does he abandon the offside rule altogether, or decide that it’s okay to carry the ball in his hands from time? He expresses his creativity through the rules, not despite them. If there were no rules, there would be no game, and he would have to take his creativity somewhere else. (I suppose he might invent rugby, but that’s another, very untypical story.) Oxbridge candidates are offered the essay question, ‘What do you think about music?’. At first glance, they are relieved; they haven’t been asked about some obscure composer they’ve never heard of. With a smile, they consider what to write. And they go on considering, as time ticks away, and the panic of unstructured freedom begins to set in.