Critics Quotes

1359 Critics quotes by 983 unique authors

Any hack can safely rail away at foreign powers beyond the sea; but a good writer is a critic of the society he lives in. — Edward Abbey
Critics are like ticks on a dog or tits on a motor: ornamental but dysfunctional. — Edward Abbey
A critic is to an author as a fungus to an oak. — Edward Abbey
The sneakiest form of literary subtlety, in a corrupt society, is to speak the plain truth. The critics will not understand you; the public will… — Edward Abbey
John Updike: our greatest suburban chic-boutique man of letters. A smug and fatal complacency has stunted his growth beyond hope of surgical repair. Not enough… — Edward Abbey
Edmund Wilson was our greatest American literary critic because he was more than a literary critic: He was a fearless, even radical judge of the… — Edward Abbey
Why the critics, like a flock of ducks, always move in perfect unison: Their authority with the public depends upon an appearance of unanimous agreement.… — Edward Abbey
The critics say that Shostakovich's Fourth Symphony has no form. They are wrong; it has the form of Shostakovich's Fourth Symphony. — Edward Abbey
Authors are far closer to the truths enfolded in mystery than ordinary people, because of that very audacity of imagination which irritates their plodding critics.… — Gertrude Atherton
I get a great laugh from artists who ridicule the critics as parasites and artists manquÃ©s â€” sucha horrible joke. I canâ€™t imagine a more… — Manny Farber
By and large, the critics and readers gave me an affirmed sense of my identity as a writer. You might know this within yourself, but… — Ralph Ellison
Artists teach critics what to think. Critics repeat what the artists teach them. — Sol LeWitt
I donâ€™t believe that a reviewer or a critic can really criticize well unless he can praise well. — James Dickey
In a writer there must always be two people - the writer and the critic. — Leo Tolstoy
The critic should describe, and not prescribe.... — Eugene Ionesco
Unfortunately, many regard the critic as an enemy, instead of seeing him as a guide to the truth. — Wilhelm Steinitz
The community as a whole doesn't listen patiently to critics who adopt alternative viewpoints. Although the great lesson of history is that knowledge develops through… — Walter Gilbert
Saying that a great genius is mad, while at the same time recognizing his artistic worth, is like saying that he had rheumatism or suffered… — James Joyce
How can you worry about pleasing people [critics] and what they're going to think? How can you do anything creative if the whole thing is… — Elliot Easton
It's like these people are programmed by Karl Rove. What he wants is to have liberal critics ridicule Bush because he says 'nucular' and 'misunderestimate'… — Noam Chomsky

Who Wrote These Critics Quotes

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