I’ve never seen a Jim Jarmusch film, and frankly his stuff doesn’t sound like anything I would enjoy — I never have developed much taste for artsy independent cinema that “breaks many conventions of traditional Hollywood filmmaking”; I happen to like traditional Hollywood conventions, thank you — but I did find the following Jarmusch quote interesting:

Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery — celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: “It’s not where you take things from — it’s where you take them to.”

Authenticity as opposed to originality. Makes sense to me. I knew at an early age that much of Star Wars was ripped off from Flash Gordon serials, Dune, and Isaac Asimov’s Foundation stories, and yet somehow those elements recombined into something wholly new and, at least before it became a brand instead of merely a movie, terribly exciting and pleasing.
This quote was happily yoinked from Roberson’s Interminable Ramble… which handily proves the point, if you think about it.