Critics Quotes

The true work of a critic is not to make his hearer believe him, but agree with him.

Writers are rarely their own best critics, nor are critics.

Some critics claim to know what art has to be and do, and consider it their task to steer art along the path they have chosen. Others receive art gladly, and try to distinguish degrees of excellence.

Often President Obama's worst critics are Senator Obama and candidate Obama.

I hope my work isn't dismissed by the critics as illustration or photography.

It's not the critic who counts.

What critics often ask for is the impossible, though this may be a salutary means of extending the borders of art.

Your camera is the best critic there is. Critics never see as much as the camera does. It is more perceptive than the human eye.

"How could you think of such awful things?" liberal critics always ask. "How else could I possibly amuse myself?" I always wonder.

Still, as much as I wish Ballistic Kiss could be a better film, the recognition it gained from critics and at festivals speaks for itself.

America is a nation of believers, dreamers and strivers that is being led by a group of censors, critics, and cynics.

But what those critics don't know is that these same assets that excite me in the chase often, once they are acquired, leave me bored.

The media builds you up, and then it tears you down.

I think critics are very useful. But I think that they, in a way, betray their position when they stop people looking for themselves.

The more we refuse to buy into our inner critics - and our external ones too - the easier it will get to have confidence in our choices, and to feel comfortable with who we are.

Well, they are critics of the Bush administration generally on the human rights record of the administration, and in particular, they are very, very critical of this use of science.

Art criticism everywhere is now at a low ebb, intellectually corrupt, swamped in meaningless jargon, distorted by political correctitudes, anxiously addressed only to other critics and their ilk.

Critics must excuse me if I compare them to certain animals called asses, who, by gnawing vines, originally taught the great advantage of pruning them.

It does not astonish me that the critics in London relegate me to the lowest rank. Alas! I fear that they are only too justified!

For I am nothing if not critical.

The vehemence with which certain critics have chosen not simply to criticize what I've written, but to challenge my writing this story at all, speaks of what the book is about: fear of disapproval.

I'm not a comedian. I can play off of people, but I'm not that guy. I don't want people being like, 'Yeah, he should have stuck with drama.' It would not be my choice to have critics mumbling that.

The severest critics are always those who have either never attempted, or who have failed in original composition.

Transforms old print To zigzag manuscript, and cheats the eyes Of gallery critics by a thousand arts.

The Canadian voice is still too rustic.

When a critic knows what she or he is looking at and writes revealingly about it, it's sublime.

My job is to notice echoes and notice resonances. Scientists are not supposed to do the same thing that cultural critics do.

Women are the harshest critics of other women.

Point out the problems, as long as you have a solution. I don't like critics who aren't doers themselves.

I'm my own most merciless critic onstage.

Those readiest to criticise are often least able to appreciate.

In the critics' vocabulary, the work 'precursor' is indispensable, but it should be cleansed of all connotations of polemics or rivalry.

The eyes of critics, whether in commending or carping, are both on one side, like a turbot's.

The best critic needn't be right, just interesting.

If there is anything education does not lack today it is critics.

Submit your work to interested societies for exhibition where the critics in the light of their physical well-being and according to the extent of their knowledge, may appraise them conveniently.

I have more critics than Hitler.

I don't write for publishers, certainly not for critics, and not for readers, But I am delighted that so many people have found my books enjoyable and want to continue to read them.

Critics can be your most important friend. I don't read criticism of my stuff only because when it's bad, it's rough-and when it's good, it's not good enough.

Well, it's great that critics are comparing me to Eminem, and not Vanilla Ice.

If you don't have critics, you probably don't have success either.

To those critics who are so pessimistic about our economy, I say: Don't be economic girlie men!

As for critics, one mediocre writer is more valuable than ten good critics. They are like haughty, barren spinsters lodged in a maternity ward.

Be a doer and not a critic.

The creator gives no heed to the critic unless he becomes a barren inventor.

I've always felt if my nose were more crooked, critics would focus more on my acting.

Some critics of my work took the view that a satirist should defer to the finer feelings of his readers and respect widely held beliefs.

Tomorrow night I appear for the first time before a Boston audience - 4000 critics.

Henry James chews more than he bites off.

Readers, not critics, are the people who determine a book's eventual fate.