“In the arts, the critic is the only independent source of information. The rest is advertising.”
“Criticism is a misconception: we must read not to understand others but to understand ourselves.”
“Writing about music is like dancing about architecture; it's a really stupid thing to want to do.”
“It is just as hard to do your duty when men are sneering at you as when they are shouting at you.”
“Self-laudation abounds among the unpolished, but nothing can stamp a man more sharply as ill-bred.”
“No sadder proof can be given of a person's own tiny stature, than their disbelief in great people.”
“As a work of art it has the same status as a long conversation between two not very bright drunks.”
“No matter how well you perform there's always somebody of intelligent opinion who thinks it's lousy.”
“The rule in carving holds good as to criticism; never cut with a knife what you can cut with a spoon.”
“Writing criticism is to writing fiction and poetry as hugging the shore is to sailing in the open sea.”
“Remember that nobody will ever get ahead of you as long as he is kicking you in the seat of the pants.”
“Honest criticism is hard to take, especially from a relative, a friend, an acquaintance, or a stranger.”
“On an occasion of this kind it becomes more than a moral duty to speak one's mind. It becomes a pleasure.”
“Asking a working writer what he thinks about critics is like asking a lamp-post what it feels about dogs.”
“You're never s good as everyone tells you when you win, and you're never as bad as they say when you lose.”
“Criticism should not be querulous and wasting, all knife and root-puller, but guiding, instructive, inspiring.”
“You should not say it is not good. You should say you do not like it; and then, you know, you're perfectly safe.”
“A good writer is not necessarily a good book critic. No more so than a good drunk is automatically a good bartender.”
“If what they are saying about you is true, mend your ways. If it isn't true, forget it, and go on and serve the Lord.”
“Criticism of others is futile and if you indulge in it often you should be warned that it can be fatal to your career.”
“Of course you're always at liberty to judge the critic. Judge people as critics, however, and you'll condemn them all!”
“In criticism I will be bold, and as sternly, absolutely just with friend and foe. From this purpose nothing shall turn me.”
“Without the meditative background that is criticism, works become isolated gestures, historical accidents, soon forgotten.”
“Never trust the artist. Trust the tale. The proper function of a critic is to save the tale from the artist who created it.”
“Abuse if you slight it, will gradually die away; but if you show yourself irritated, you will be thought to have deserved it.”
“Nature, when she invented, manufactured, and patented her authors, contrived to make critics out of the chips that were left.”
“If I make a move, like raise my eyebrows, some critic says I'm doing Nicholson. What am I supposed to do, cut off my eyebrows?”
“After all, one knows one's weak points so well, that it's rather bewildering to have the critics overlook them and invent others.”
“We should not judge people by their peak of excellence; but by the distance they have traveled from the point where they started.”
“In my conscience I believe the baggage loves me, for she never speaks well of me herself, nor suffers any body else to rail at me.”