Critic Quotes

Every literary critic believes he will outwit history and have the last word.

Painting, n.: The art of protecting flat surfaces from the weather, and exposing them to the critic.

Good critical writing is measured by the perception and evaluation of the subject; bad critical writing by the necessity of maintaining the professional standing of the critic.

No film critic's going to say it, but 'Madagascar 3' is better than 'The Artist.'

I have never believed that the critic is the rival of the poet, but I do believe that criticism is a genre of literature or it does not exist.

I've been a critic of the antiglobalization movement, and they've been a critic of me, but the one thing I respect about the movement is their authentic energy. These are not people who don't care about the world.

A critic is a legless man who teaches running.

The sheer complexity of writing a play always had dazzled me. In an effort to understand it, I became a critic.

I think it's a very old and deep-seated double standard that holds that when a man writes about family and feelings, it's literature with a capital L, but when a woman considers the same topics, it's romance, or a beach book - in short, it's something unworthy of a serious critic's attention.

The critic is the only independent source of information. The rest is advertising.

More negatives write than call. It's a cheap shot for me to go on the air with the critical letters or E-mail I get because the reaction of the listeners is always an instantaneous expression of sympathy for me and contempt for the poor critic.

I never met anybody in my life who says, I want to be a critic. People want to be a fireman, poet, novelist.

Never trust the artist. Trust the tale. The proper function of the critic is to save the tale from the artist who created it.

Give a critic an inch, he'll write a play.

Asking a critic to name his favorite book is like asking a butcher to name his favorite pig.

The average man, if he meddles with criticism at all, is a conservative critic.

The only real evidence that any critic may bring before his gaze is the finished poem.

I'm not a food critic, and I'm not really an authority to write anything on food.

I am strongly convinced that the people or society is the best and the most unerring critic.

Has anybody ever seen a dramatic critic in the daytime? Of course not. They come out after dark, up to no good.

I know that I am my worst critic. I know that if I can walk away from the set at the end of the day and feel that I did the best job I could and feel proud, that's what will satisfy me.

The critic has to educate the public; the artist has to educate the critic.

More than in any other performing arts the lack of respect for acting seems to spring from the fact that every layman considers himself a valid critic.

The public is wiser than the wisest critic.

I am an Episcopalian who takes the faith of my fathers seriously, and I would, I think, be disheartened if my own young children were to turn away from the church when they grow up. I am also a critic of Christianity, if by critic one means an observer who brings historical and literary judgment to bear on the texts and traditions of the church.

I was never a true journalist, I was a movie critic.

No manager in the world gets good results all the time and you know there's people always ready to have a snipe. In fact I'm my own biggest critic, I really am. Because my own standards are so high, I criticise myself behind the scenes more than perhaps I should, according to people who know me well.

I was trained in the '50s as a New Critic. I remember what literature was like before the New Critics, when people stood up and talked about Shelley's soul and such things.

It is quite cruel that a poet cannot wander through his regions of enchantment without having a critic, forever, like the old man of the sea, upon his back.

I still think like a critic, and I still analyze films like a critic. However, it's not possible to write criticism if you're making films.