There is no defense against reproach but obscurity; it is a kind of concomitant to greatness, as satires and invectives were an essential part of a Roman triumph.
Critic - Criticism Quotes
The majority of our critics are best qualified to cover brush fires in New Jersey.
I have been both overpraised and underpraised. I assume by the time I finish writing – and I plan to go on writing until I’m ninety or gaga – it will all equal itself out… You can’t involve yourself with the vicissitudes of fashion or critical response.
Criticism is something we can avoid easily by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing.
In general, when reading a scholarly critic, one profits more from his quotations than from his comments.
The public is wiser than the wisest critic.
Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how it’s done, they’ve seen it done every day, but they’re unable to do it themselves.
Critic, n.: A person who boasts himself hard to please because nobody tries to please him.
Review, v.t. To set your wisdom (holding not a doubt of it. Although in truth there’s neither bone nor skin to it) At work upon a book, and so read out of it The qualities that you have first read into it.
Caviler, n. A critic of our own work.
