An up-and-coming young composer wrote a piece of music and asked an established older composer to attend a rehearsal and comment on the piece. During the rehearsal the older composer fell asleep. The younger composer was mortified: "How could you fall asleep when you knew that I wanted your opinion?" The older composer replied, "Young man, sleep is an opinion."
This story is variously told of composers, playwrights, poets, etc, sometimes with no names and sometimes with luminaries such as Carl Sandburg and Mark Twain as the older party. This is how I heard it.
The point of this story is that I will comment on creative works that I didn't finish, or where I skipped or skimmed parts. That's a legitimate part of the opinion as long as I disclose it.
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