1000 hours of consumption

Virginia Woolf on why different people respond differently to the same work of art.  It cannot be known, or rather that to answer it your knowledge would have to be virtually infinite. It would have 'to extend over an immeasurably large range of variables, which would include not only perceptual, cognitive, emotional and other personality characteristics, but also biographical data, specific personal experiences, past encounters with art, and individual memories and associations.'

(from Nick Hornby, Dickens and Prince, p. 52, answering the question about why Prince and Dickens were so hungry for arts)

Hornby says that it's not the 10,000 hour rule of practice that counts; "maybe it's ten thousand hours of consumption."

Earlier he notes Dickens goes to the theater "nearly every night for three years.  He was particularly obsessed with a performer/comedian called Charles Mathews, and Dickens saw his shows 'as often as he could, learning his performances by heart, words, songs, movements and gestures,' Claire Tomalin wrote. What kind of teenager does that?"

As for Prince (in his memoir The Beautiful Ones), he writes "We never rode past Dee's record shop without stopping in. Any song that caught my fancy was 1st purchased and then transcribed. Lyrics only, as I never learned 2 read music. Re-copying a lyric helps you to break down a lie, to see what it's made of."