Very few of my characters are based on people I've known. It is too constricting.
Ancestral habits of mind can be constricting; they also confer one's individuality.
Life is much larger than how we image it, always, but society can be constricting in ways.
For me, style is about how you feel that day and what inspires you, as well as taking chances and making mistakes. Everything has to be comfortable. If things are too tight or too constricting, I feel out of my element.
I have a number of symptoms that are neurotic and are constricting in the sense that if I had a brilliant idea for a film that had to be shot in Tulsa, OK I would tear it up and throw it away. Anything outside of New York, 'cause I can't exist in a hotel outside of my own home, I have to be in my own home and my own environment. This is a neurotic symptom that is constricting to my work even.
Despair can be like an iron band constricting the heart.