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 to 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?.