Critiques Quote by Stephen King
![“And what about those [writers' workshop] critiques, by the way? How valuable are they? Not very, in my experience, sorry. A lot of them are maddeningly vague. I love the feeling of Peter's story, someone may say. It had something... a sense of I don't know... there's a loving kind of you know... I…” quote by Stephen King](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/986/stephen-king-13_writing_and-what-about-those-writers-workshop-cr_1716135.jpg)
““And what about those [writers' workshop] critiques, by the way? How valuable are they? Not very, in my experience, sorry. A lot of them are maddeningly vague. I love the feeling of Peter's story, someone may say. It had something... a sense of I don't know... there's a loving kind of you know... I can't exactly describe it… It seems to occur to few of the attendees that if you have a feeling you just can't describe, you might just be, I don't know, kind of like, my sense of it is, maybe in the wrong fucking class.””
About This Quote
Source Interview: Writer's Workshop Discussion, Stephen King, 2018
Critiques often lack specificity, making them unhelpful; genuine feeling can be hard to articulate.
In simple terms: Vague feedback hinders growth.
Key Takeaway
Seek clear, concrete criticism.
Themes
writing
feedback
communication
creativity
learning
Mood
frustrated
inquisitive
Type
advice
reflective
When to use this quote
- writing groups
- manuscript revisions
- creative workshops
Key Concepts
literature
pedagogy
self-awareness
Questions to Reflect On
- What specific feedback would improve your work?
- How do you differentiate constructive critique from vague comments?
A Different Perspective
Not all feedback is useful; some may be dismissive.
![“Mel [ Bochner] held large-form meetings with students. But the stronger points came through when we had the one-on-one critiques. And that's the system that works at Yale. There's the group critiques, and then there's the one-on-one critiques that happen in studio.” quote by Kehinde Wiley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/49f/kehinde-wiley-1194_critique_mel-bochner-held-large-form-meetings-wit_717613.jpg)
![“Some of the justifiable critiques has been by - been so successful in telling this story, you know, there's a danger of saying, oh, well, you know, we don't need to worry about this because that's absolutely not the case. What [Hans] Rosling is doing is showing us an overall global trend, which in…” quote by Keith Devlin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/3dd/keith-devlin-19829_bad-thing_some-of-the-justifiable-critiques-has-be_763450.jpg)
