Keep Studying the Masters

I was watching Martin Scorsese in a documentary on Ovation TV about his personal journey up to the point where he, and his colleagues, started making films. He said something that caught my attention:

Study the old masters, enrich your palette, expand the canvas - there's always so much more to learn.

I think this is a very salient point. Learn from others. That doesn't mean you have to copy them or become unoriginal; just that the works of masters deserve close examination to make you better at what you do.