Francois Truffaut, during his film critic days, argued that in order to appreciate any kind of artist you had to experience his or her entire body of work. You can argue the merits of, say, sitting through every Michael Bay film or reading every J.D. Salinger book not named The Catcher in the Rye, but he has a point: each work that an artist completes reflects their mindset at different times in their evolution from apprentice to master.
