Ellen Datlow Quotes

You know, I'm really not interested in someone telling me that something's good or bad.

Just because you like something, that doesn't mean that you have a feel for it.

You can use all the quantitative data you can get, but you still have to distrust it and use your own intelligence and judgment.

I say to consumers: instead of relying totally on critics, drink what you like and like what you drink.

What a person praises is perhaps a surer standard, even than what he condemns, of his own character, information and abilities.

I trust my taste. I trust it completely and I always have done, and I've always thought it isn't that different from everybody else's.

You have to trust yourself, not research. Not testing. Testing helps, but you have to trust your own taste. If your taste says something isn't any good, don't let research rationalize that out of its own truth.

Common sense is the most widely shared commodity in the world, for every man is convinced that he is well supplied with it.

I always think of myself as an audience first. If I like something, my assumption is that others, too, will like it.

There are three distinct kind of judges upon all new authors or productions; the first are those who know no rules, but pronounce entirely from their natural taste and feelings; the second are those who know and judge by rules; and the third are those who know, but are above the rules. These last are those you should wish to satisfy. Next to them rate the natural judges; but ever despise those opinions that are formed by the rules.

I just always think, 'Do I like it?' And if I like it, maybe other people will come and like it too.

Nothing, of course, will ever take the place of the good old fashion of 'liking' a work of art or not liking it; the more improved criticism will not abolish that primitive, that ultimate, test.

I don't like every other musician's work. The same way that filmmakers don't like every other filmmakers' work. Just because I'm a feminist doesn't mean I'm gonna say that I like every other woman's work, or that I appreciate another statement that another woman publicly made.

When I read the rules of criticism, I immediately inquire after the works of the author who has written them, and by that means discover what it is he likes in a composition.

My mother, grandmother and I all have different styles, but we share the same taste.

I'm the worst critic about music myself. I hardly ever, every like something the first time I listen to it. So I've got to put myself in other people's shoes.

I have always been interested in art but had no formal training or experience. It's always been just what I liked, my eye for art.

Intellect takes you to the door, but it doesn't take you into the house.

If you think one piece of creation is better than another, you have completely lost it.

As nobody can possibly tell me whether one's writing is bad or good, the only certain value is one's own pleasure. I am sure of that.

You have to want to have taste. Some people have inherently bad taste. Their problem is really not the bad taste -- that can be fixed -- but that they don't know they have it!

Just because somebody drops in on you from another dimension, don't assume they're wiser than you about anything at all, or that they can do anything better than you can do yourself. Discarnate or mortal, what matters about people is what they know.

Acting, music, painting... it's very subjective. So what I might think is a great actor, you might think is not a very good actor at all.

I don't really have guilty pleasures. Anything musically that I fully, fully believe, is good no matter who the artist is, no matter what the marketing is behind it, I stand pretty firm.

There are some readers who have never read an essay on taste; and if they take my advice they never will, for they can no more improve their taste by so doing than they could improve their appetite or digestion by studying a cookery-book.