Literary criticism now is all pranks and polemics.

The two main ideas that run through all of my writing, whether it be literary criticism or political polemic are these: I am strong…

— H. L. Mencken

“That book of [Melancthon], to my mind, deserves not merely to live as long as books are read, but to take its place in…

— Martin Luther

When appearance and reality coincide, philosophy and literary criticism find themselves with nothing to say.

— Mason Cooley

Strict rules of evidence would destroy psychoanalysis and literary criticism.

— Mason Cooley

One of the functions of literary criticism, or reviewing, generally - and I, most of my reviews actually are not about literature - but…

— Louis Menand

The techniques are all means of dealing with one simple idea: She wrote it. (That is, the "wrong" person--in this case, female--has created the…

— Joanna Russ

With a few exceptions, the critics of children's books are remarkably lenient souls… Most of us assume there is something goodin every child; the…

— Katharine Sergeant Angell White

When I first started writing in my early 20s it was literary criticism for a very eccentric magazine called Books And Bookmen, which allowed…

— Jonathan Meades

What I teach is literary criticism and comparative literature and so on and that's my function, but from time to time it's possible for…

— Wole Soyinka

People have been predicting the death of philosophy since the 17th century. When I was a student, people were saying, 'We're in the last…

— Bernard Williams

“Each work of criticism is supposed to build on the body of work, to increase the total sum of human understanding. It's not like…

— Elif Batuman

“Literary criticism is not your forte, my dear fellow. Don't try it. You should leave that to people who haven't been at a University.…

— Oscar Wilde

Criticism even should not be without its charms. When quite devoid of all amenities, it is no longer literary.

— Joseph Joubert

Historical investigation and literary criticism have taken the magic out of the Bible and have made it a composite human book, written by many…

— Bill Vaughan

The camera can photograph thought. It's better than a paragraph of sweet polemic.

— Dirk Bogarde