Criticism Quotes

Consciousness is the materia poetica that Shakespeare sculpts as Michelangelo sculpts marble. We feel the consciousness of Hamlet or Iago, and our own consciousness strangely expands.

Does no one want to know the truth here, Mr. Archer? The real loneliness is living among all these kind of people who only ask one to pretend!

It seems to me that my whole life I've been standing on some tower or a pillbox or a trampoline, waving the names of writers, as if we needed rescue. And the first person I had to rescue was myself.

Don’t a man has serf esteem, it’s only woman who is sign of dignity, don’t man have their own?

Said the pot to die kettle "Get away blackface."

What a blessed thing it is that nature when she invented manufactured and patented her audiors contrived to make critics out of the chips that were left!

Even the lion has to defend himself against flies.

Of all the cants which are canted in this canting world - though the cant of hypocrites ihay be the worst - the cant of criticism is the most tormenting.

A guest sees more in an hour than the host in a year.

Asking a working writer what he thinks about critics is like asking a lamppost how it feels about dogs.

Constant indiscriminate approval devalues because it is so predictable.

Don't judge any man until you have walked two moons in his moccasins.

The critic is an overgoer with pen-envy.

Two and two continue to make four in spite of the whine of the amateur for three or the cry of the critic for five.

More and more people think of the critic as an indispensable middle man between writer and reader and would no more read a book alone if they could help it than have a baby alone.

It is not expected of critics that they should help us to make sense of our lives they are bound only to attempt the lesser feat of making sense of the ways we try to make sense of our lives.

His words leap across rivers and mountains but his thoughts are still only six inches long.

The factor in human life provocative of a noble discontent is the gradual emergence of a sense of criticism founded upon appreciation of beauty and of intellectual distinction and of duty.

To many people dramatic criticism must seem like an attempt to tattoo soap bubbles.

The test of a good critic is whether he knows when and how to believe on insufficient evidence.

Reprove not a scorner lest he hate thee rebuke a wise man and he will love thee.

In judging others folks will work overtime for no pay.

If you are willing to take the punishment you're halfway through the battle. That the issues may be trivial the battle ugly is another point.

A critic is a legless man who teaches running.

Nature fits all her children with something to do He who would write and can't write can surely review.

Nature when she invented manufactured and patented her authors contrived to make critics out of the chips that were left.

Any fool can criticize and many of them do.

Critics are like eunuchs in a harem: they know how it's done they've seen it done every day but they're unable to do it themselves.

I am sitting in the smallest room in my house. I have your review in front of me. Soon it will be behind me.

The good critic is he who narrates the adventures of his soul among masterpieces.

Of all the cants which are canted in this canting world tho' the cant of hypocrites may be the worst the cant of criticism is the most tormenting.

The critic is the duenna in the passionate affair between playwrights actors and audiences - a figure dreaded and occasionally comic but never welcome never loved.

Sometimes you have to tell a a bunch of lies to get at the truth.

The expectation of intelligent gossip is a powerful motive for serious self-criticism, more powerful than New Year resolutions to improve one's decision making at work and at home.

The way contemporary literature is emerging, soon we can expect "Item poetry" in novels.

The study of literature threatens to become a kind of paleontology of failure, and criticism a supercilious psychoanalysis of authors.

The Japanese bureaucracy is unique. It is also very powerful, although it is now the object of so much criticism. Many of Japan's brightest made it a pillar of strength and continuity.

It seems this is an age of clever critics who keep bewailing the fact that there are no works worthy of criticism.

You have to accept as an architect to be exposed to criticism. Architecture should not rely on full harmony.

Constructive criticism is about finding something good and positive to soften the blow to the real critique of what really went on.

Criticism in good faith is good. When it's targeted solely to destruction, I'm not interested.

I've never really understood the criticism that climbing is inherently selfish, since it could equally be argued about virtually any other hobby or sport. Is gardening selfish?

When trying to start a company, your enemy isn't criticism, anger or insults. Your enemy is apathy.

The greatest threat to freedom is the absence of criticism.