Critic Quotes

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

The generous Critic fann'd the Poet's fire, And taught the world with reason to admire.

You can get sucked into the idea that, 'Gosh, this is impressive. Maybe I should do this. It will look good.' Or 'I'll write like this because it will impress that critic.'

If Attila the Hun were alive today, he'd be a drama critic.

The second, and I think this is the much more overt and I think it is the main cause, I have been increasingly demonstrating or trying to demonstrate that every possible stance a critic, a scholar, a teacher can take towards a poem is itself inevitably and necessarily poetic.

Write how you want, the critic shall show the world you could have written better.

A true critic ought to dwell upon excellencies rather than imperfections, to discover the concealed beauties of a writer, and communicate to the world such things as are worth their observation.

Half of the secular unrest and dismal, profane sadness of modern society comes from the vain ideas that every man is bound to be a critic for life.

There is a certain justice in criticism. The critic is like a midwife - a tyrannical midwife.

I won't quit until I get run over by a truck, a producer or a critic.

Every good poet includes a critic, but the reverse is not true.

Whatever I do is done out of sheer joy; I drop my fruits like a ripe tree. What the general reader or the critic makes of them is not my concern.

I wish I could be like Shaw who once read a bad review of one of his plays, called the critic and said: 'I have your review in front of me and soon it will be behind me.'

A drama critic is a person who surprises the playwright by informing him what he meant.

Pay no attention to what the critics say; no statue has ever been put up to a critic.

If I were less than honest as a critic, I think people would spot that right away, and it would destroy my credibility.

Too much is demanded by the critic, attempted by the poet.

A critic is someone who never actually goes to the battle, yet who afterwards comes out shooting the wounded.

The critic should describe, and not prescribe.

I never knew any painter worthy of the name who paid the smallest attention to what a critic says, even in conversation.

The most noble criticism is that in which the critic is not the antagonist so much as the rival of the author.

Critics are entitled to have an opinion, but how can they judge how comfortable a building is? No critic is smart enough to judge how a building will perform over time.

Reviewers are usually people who would have been, poets, historians, biographer, if they could. They have tried their talents at one thing or another and have failed; therefore they turn critic.

It's funny to be a critic.

I will try to account for the degree of my aesthetic emotion. That, I conceive, is the function of the critic.

Whenever a critic mentions the salary of an actor, I'm thinking, He's not talking about the movie.

At first, I wasn't sure whether I'd be a critic or a filmmaker, but I knew it would be something like that.

A good drama critic is one who perceives what is happening in the theatre of his time. A great drama critic also perceives what is not happening.

You do not become a critic until it has been completely established to your own satisfaction that you cannot be a poet.

I'm a harsh critic of the status quo.