I am a professional musician and composer and I never, ever, start from prepackaged drum loops or anything of the sort.
One of the super fun and satisfying things of being a competent musician is how quickly I can create basic components for my compositions.
That said, musicians tend to have a mental library of ideas and techniques they can employ to flesh out an inspired idea.
I also have a library of partially finished unused themes and ideas that I wrote, which I can bring in to start or expand a piece I'm working on.
So a library of my own partially finished writings would be far more analogous to how I work than a bunch of anecdotes and quotes from other people.
The anecdotes and quotes would be more analogous to other people's music which I've heard and internalized, but would never literally reference while I am composing. The last thing I want is those sorts of cut and paste elements to come anywhere near my work.
One of the super fun and satisfying things of being a competent musician is how quickly I can create basic components for my compositions.
That said, musicians tend to have a mental library of ideas and techniques they can employ to flesh out an inspired idea.
I also have a library of partially finished unused themes and ideas that I wrote, which I can bring in to start or expand a piece I'm working on.
So a library of my own partially finished writings would be far more analogous to how I work than a bunch of anecdotes and quotes from other people.
The anecdotes and quotes would be more analogous to other people's music which I've heard and internalized, but would never literally reference while I am composing. The last thing I want is those sorts of cut and paste elements to come anywhere near my work.