Books Quote by Mason Cooley

The purpose of a writer is to be read, and the criticism which would destroy the power of pleasing must be blown aside

— Samuel Johnson

“A bad composition carries its own punishment—contempt and ridicule; a good one excites envy and entails upon its author a thousand mortifications; he finds…

— Matthew Gregory Lewis

The animadversions of critics are commonly such as may easily provoke the sedatest writer to some quickness of resentment and asperity of reply

— Samuel Johnson

Most critics don't realize that a novel like One Hundred Years of Solitude is a bit of a joke, full of signals to close…

— Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Criticism is now become mere hangman's work, and meddles only with the faults of authors ; nay, the critic is disgusted less with their…

— John Dryden

'The Author' is subtly unflinching in its satirical attack on certain practices in the creation of art and the mediation of violence.

— Tim Crouch

The responsibility of the writer is to be a sort of demonic social critic -- to present the world and people in it as…

— Edward Albee

Every writer's got to pay some attention, I suppose, to what his critics say because theirs is a reflection of what the audience feels…

— Edward Albee

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

“Let us leave it to the reviewers to abuse such effusions of fancy at their leisure and over every new novel to talk in…

— Jane Austen

“The critic's aim should be to interpret the work they are writing about and help readers appreciate it, by defining and analysing those qualities…

— David Cecil

There is one gratification an old author can afford a certain class of critics; that namely, of comparing him as he is with what…

— Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr