The more you sample, the better and broader your taste will be. The more you stick to what already speaks to you, the more limited and narrow your taste.

When we misunderstand what we read, our feelings make us pay more attention to what is familiar in the writing than to what is unfamiliar. Thus believing that taste is primarily personal encourages us to not react to the writing, but instead repeat what we already think and feel. And so bad taste perpetuates itself.

Listening to yourself is the route to good taste, but so is listening to other people. We catch the fire of other people’s enthusiasm, which is rooted in their knowledge. That is how we discover newer, better things, be they novels, films, symphonies, cuisines, clothes.

You must read the works that challenge and defeat you, or try.

The more you sample, the better and broader your taste will be. The more you stick to what already speaks to you, the more limited and narrow your taste. Call it good taste or don’t, it’s all the same.

Struggling through works that are beyond us leads to new levels of understanding, new depths of feeling.

One sure way to appreciate the canon is to trace the chain of influences backwards.

The more ignorant we are, the more likely it is that we will be dazzled by mediocrity. Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul, as Alexander Pope said.1 Good taste is accumulated through wide knowledge.

Having good taste in wine means being able to identify what you are drinking, being able to distinguish various grapes and regions; similarly, having good taste in art means knowing what you are reading, watching, or hearing.