We investigate the problem of determining the basis of motifs (a form of repeated patterns with don't cares) in an input string. We give new upper and lower bounds on the problem, introducing a new notion of basis that is provably smaller than (and contained in) previously defined ones. Our basis can be computed in less time and space, and is still able to generate the same set of motifs. We also prove that the number of motifs in all these bases grows exponentially with the quorum, the minimal number of times a motif must appear. We show that a polynomial-time algorithm exists only for fixed quorum.