Abstract Quote by John Keats

Praise will lead you to vanity, and blame will lead you to self-pity, and both are bad for writers.

— John Berryman

The critic does his utmost to blight genius in its infancy; that which rises in spite of him he will not see; and then…

— Thomas Love Peacock

Criticism? An artist wants praise. Praise.

— Virginia Woolf

So if I were talking to a young writer, I would recommend the cultivation of extreme indifference to both praise and blame because praise…

— John Berryman

“Critics are the eunuchs of literature. They stand by in envious awe while the whole man and his partner demonstrate the art of living.”

— John Steinbeck

But this I know; the writer who possesses the creative gift owns something of whichhe is not always mastersomething that at times strangely wills…

— Charlotte Brontë

“For (strange as it may sound to many people, who tend to think of critics as being motivated by the lower emotions: envy, disdain,…

— Daniel Mendelsohn

“The principal aim underlying this work is to render homage where homage is due, a task which I know beforehand is impossible of accomplishment.…

— Henry Miller

“Criticism is an act of love. We can never learn those people we love, but we can learn about them in such ways as…

— Richard L. McGuire

The professional learns to recognize envy-driven criticism and to take it for what it is: the supreme compliment. The critic hates most that which…

— Steven Pressfield

While it is emotion that gives an impulse to the landscape painter, it is his style that inspires the critic's praise, and his subject…

— Walter J. Phillips

“If he lacks verbal expression of it, you may find his love profoundly in his works, deeds and creativity; so recognize rather than criticize.”

— T.F. Hodge