“The thing about living in New York is that there are other artists; that is the most difficult, I think they are the hardest critics.” ThinkingArtistDifficultNew YorkCriticsHardest Author:Julian Schnabel
“One of the problems with a lot of "confessional" writing is that it starts and stops with the confessional and doesn't really tie the "I" into a "we" at all. I'm still surprised at how mad critics get at that kind of confessional writing.” WritingKindStillsProblemMadCriticsTies Author:Kiese Laymon
“I think that there is a purity aesthetic, like "I just make art because I'm an artist and I can't help it. I don't care what the critics say." But different mediums have a different relationship with the public. If you're in a performing medium it's hard not to place some weight on whether or not people come to your shows, or whether or not they're enjoying them.” PeopleIfsThinkingArtI CanDifferentHardHelpingShowsCareArtistEnjoyArt IsWeightCriticsDon't CareMediumsI Don't CarePerformingPurityAestheticDifferent Relationships Author:Mirah
“Hip-Hop's cultural movement is much larger than the corporate representation. The images most of hip-hop's critics point to are those manufactured by major corporations whether on television, via Viacom, or on the radio, via Radio One and Clear Channel.” ClearMovementTelevisionMajorsCriticsHip HopRadioHipsCorporateCorporationsHopsRepresentation Author:Bakari Kitwana
“Legions of young hip-hop fans are as against this as hip-hop's most fierce critics. There is a huge underground movement within hip-hop circles that against these representation. You can hear this message on tons of lyrics and rap songs produced by independent emcees. But they are fighting against a well-oiled and well-financed machine.” WellsYoungSongFightingFansMovementHugeMessagesMachinesIndependentCriticsHip HopRapCirclesHipsHopsFierceRepresentationLegionRap SongEmcee Author:Bakari Kitwana
“But then foreign critics right away made sweeping comparisons to haiku, noh theater, and directors like Ozu, as if the movie were somehow representative of Japan - which was, well, not what I was after. Similarly, with After Life, I deliberately set out to make a movie that was unlike what I imagined the foreign conception of Japan to be, and I figured non-Japanese wouldn't find it interesting at all.” IfsWellsMadeInterestingDirectorsTheaterCriticsJapanComparisonConceptionRepresentativesHaikuSweepingNoh Author:Hirokazu Koreeda
“I have prided myself with striving for objectivity, something many literary-minded critics dismiss as impossible. But in Washington, reporters are practically the only people who actually spend time talking to Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and liberals, and I find the longer I report in Washington, the mushier and less conclusive my own views are. I like it that way.” PeopleWayMy OwnViewsTalkingImpossibleRepublicanDemocratCriticsStriveReportsReportersEnd TimesSpend TimeObjectivity Author:Jon Weisman
“So for a long time, I did a lot of freelance writing in addition to writing fiction and such - I was a food critic for a magazine for a bit, I did writing for nonprofits and political things, I was the editorial consultant for another magazine for a couple years, all sorts of jobs.” WritingYearsLongJobsPoliticalBitsFictionCoupleLong TimeCriticsMagazinesEditorialsWriting FictionConsultantsNonprofits Author:Tod Goldberg
“I don't think we need a critic to negotiate with the audience. People say, "Who are you writing for?" I'm writing for myself but my audience is anybody who knows how to read. I think a story should engage anybody who knows how to read. And I hope that my stories do, maybe on a different level for more sophisticated readers than, say, a high school kid, but still a story has got to grab you. That's why we read it.” PeopleThinkingKnowsNeedsShouldWritingStillsDifferentStoriesKidsSchoolLevelsAudienceKnow HowReaderHigh SchoolCriticsSophisticatedDifferent Levels Author:T.C. Boyle
“I just think that the question of women in rock or women playing guitar, I just think it's such a non-issue, and I think that probably the sooner critics and press outlets can just erase the 'what's it like being a women in rock?' question from their vocabulary, the better off everyone will be.” ThinkingIssuesRocksPressesCriticsGuitarVocabularyBetter OffOutletsErasePlaying Guitar Author:Annie E. Clark
“My work is very much like the restaurant critic's - a number of factors come together to make for a strong review.” TogetherStrongNumbersCriticsFactorsRestaurantsReviews Author:Hank Stuever
“In the end, all critics should be guided by this one principle: Is this piece of work [TV show, movie, play, concert, album, restaurant] succeeding at what it set out to do?” ShouldEndsPlayShowsPrinciplesPiecesTvsSucceedCriticsAlbumsRestaurantsConcertsTv Shows Author:Hank Stuever
“My first few years as TV critic, I would go to parties and people (usually older Posties or ex-Posties who seemed to pride themselves on not watching very much television) would take me by the arm and insist that I watch this show they'd recently starting watching on DVD, about drug dealers in Baltimore.” PeopleYearsFirstsShowsPartyWatchesTelevisionTvsPrideArmsDrugCriticsStartingTake MeExesDealerDvdsBaltimoreDrug Dealers Author:Hank Stuever
“My speaking style was criticised by no less an authority than Arnold Schwarzenegger. It was a low moment, my friends, to have my rhetorical skills denounced by a monosyllabic Austrian cyborg.” MomentsStylePoliticianSkillsAuthorityLowsMy FriendsCriticsPublic SpeakingSchwarzeneggerRhetoricalCriticiseCyborg Author:Boris Johnson
“I was doing a play in New York, which we had done in New Haven, Connecticut. It was an American premiere of a play called The Changing Room written by a wonderful man named David Story. It was about a rugby team in the North of England. It got just screaming rave reviews. At that time, virtually every major critic went up to the Long Wharf Theater to see a new play like that.” MenLongDonePlayStoriesRoomsWonderfulWrittenTeamHavensNew YorkMajorsEnglandTheaterCriticsReviewsRugbyPremieresRaveConnecticutWonderful Man Author:Richard Masur
“hat whole phrase, "daring greatly," is from the Theodore Roosevelt quote that goes back to your original question of, what about the critics? And when I read his quote it was life-changing. "It's not the critic who counts; it's not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done the better.” MenDoneWholeStrongHe ManOriginalsCriticsDeedsLife ChangingPhrasesHatsDaringDoersStrong ManTheodoreDaring Greatly Author:Brené Brown
“I can't be paralyzed anymore by the critics. My new mantra is, if you're not in the arena getting your ass kicked on occasion, then I'm not interested in your feedback. You don't get to sit in the cheat seat and criticize my appearance or my work with mean-spiritedness if you're also not in the arena.” IfsMeanI CanCriticsAppearanceAssOccasionsSeatsCriticizeNot InterestedCheatArenaFeedbackMantrasParalyzed Author:Brené Brown
“I think sometimes the hardest obstacle is yourself. I can certainly be my own worst critic and oftentimes forget to enjoy the here and now. Physically, the hardest obstacle I have overcome was severe back issues. [This] resulted in finally getting surgery to replace four discs, which changed my life back to active - which is how I am happiest.” ThinkingI CanSometimesEnjoyMy OwnForgetIssuesFourWorstChangedOvercomingCriticsObstaclesActiveHardestSurgerySevereHere And NowChanged My LifeDiscs Author:Tricia Helfer
“Yet there are some critics in the nonfiction world who still look at some of today's stranger interpretations of the essay and say "You don't belong here. That's not how we do things." I think that's problematic.” ThinkingWorldLooksStillsTodayCriticsStrangerInterpretationNonfictionEssays Author:John D'Agata
“I don't care about people kissing my ass or telling me how great I am. I don't really give a damn. I read the bad stuff a whole lot more than I read the good stuff. I read that because there are always going to be critics who are going to say how good you aren't.” PeopleGivingWholeCareStuffKissingCriticsDon't CareAssI Don't CareDamnBad Stuff Author:Richard Sherman
“Everybody is a critic, everybody has a voice, everybody can reach you. Everybody is an expert and that's what makes it fun.” FunVoiceCriticsExperts Author:Richard Sherman
“You're your worst critic, and I don't like the way I sound on the mic.” WaySoundWorstCriticsMics Author:Ginuwine
“A lot of times, mainstream critics are much tougher on small, independent movies because they can be.” IndependentCriticsMainstream Author:John C. Reilly
“I'm grateful for the likes of Kundera, Murnane, Markson, Berger, and, in his recent work, Coetzee. But no matter how celebrated they are, critics still consider them askance. Elizabeth Costello, for example, is a great novel, but it got quite a critical panning when it was published. The complaint was that it was simply a book of speeches, without the machinery of conventional fiction. Markson's books are compilations of facts and alleged facts, very artfully.” StillsBookMatterFactsFictionNovelExampleSpeechGratefulCriticsCriticalLikesConventionalComplaintsMachineryGreat NovelsCompilationCoetzee Author:Teju Cole
“Mann is widely recognized as a master of irony and ambiguity, yet it's remarkable how quickly people foreclose options he carefully leaves open. Lots of readers - including eminent critics - jump to conclusions: that Nietzsche's Birth of Tragedy is a central background text, that Aschenbach is an inferior writer, that he's never been attracted by pubescent male beauty before, that he dies of cholera.” PeopleDiesMastersReaderBirthTragedyCriticsMalesIncludingBackgroundsConclusionIronyRemarkableInferiorsAmbiguityCholeraMale Beauty Author:Philip Kitcher
“I use biography, I use literary connections (as with Platen - this seems to me extremely helpful for appreciating the nuances of Mann's and Aschenbach's sexuality), I use philosophical sources (but not in the way many Mann critics do, where the philosophical theses and concepts seem to be counters to be pushed around rather than ideas to be probed), and I use juxtapositions with other literary works (including Mann's other fiction) and with works of music.” WayIdeasUseSeemsFictionSourceConceptsAppreciateConnectionsPhilosophicalCriticsIncludingSexualityHelpfulBiographiesNuanceThesisJuxtapositionLiterary Works Author:Philip Kitcher
“There are many critics whose work I greatly admire. Even though I diverge from T.J. Reed in several important ways, I've learned greatly from his writings on Mann.” WayWritingImportantCriticsAdmireI've LearnedReeds Author:Philip Kitcher
“I'm a fan of Hugh Kenner, Richard Ellman, Lionel Trilling and Frank Kermode. All these people have taught me how to read - but perhaps, above all literary critics, I'm indebted to Wayne Booth (several people have suggested to me that I'm trying to reinvent "ethical criticism").” PeopleTryingFansTaughtCriticismCriticsEthicalFrankWayneIndebted Author:Philip Kitcher
“Critics who perceive the first level of Mann's irony recognize that the second voice is giving us reasons to be dubious about various aspects of Aschenbach's life and work. But many of them don't appreciate the second level of irony, the one exemplified in setting this narrative voice alongside the more sympathetic one, and inviting us to choose.” GivingFirstsReasonVoiceLevelsAspectAppreciateCriticsVariousSettingSettingsNarrativePerceiveIronySympatheticInvitingDubiousNarrative Voice Author:Philip Kitcher
“Was Mann himself fully aware of all the facets of his irony? Probably not - any more than Shakespeare was fully aware of all the riches subsequent critics have found in his plays.” PlayFoundCriticsRichesIronyFacets Author:Philip Kitcher
“Critics worry that if we spend time paying attention to that new kind of media or technology instead of talking to each other that that is somehow isolating. But humans are fundamentally social. So I think in reality, if a technology doesn't actually help us socially understand each other better, it isn't going to catch on and succeed.” IfsThinkingHumansKindHelpingRealitySocialAttentionTalkingTechnologyWorryMediaSucceedCriticsPay AttentionEnd TimesSpend Time Author:Mark Zuckerberg
“It's my experience that people don't think of fiction writing as being as intellectually serious as other kinds of writing in academia and so without a career as a critic or essayist you can be treated as something of a spiritual medium - a fraud - for "just" writing fiction.” PeopleThinkingWritingKindSpiritualFictionCareersSeriousCriticsTreatedMediumsFraudAcademiaFiction WritingWriting FictionEssayists Author:Alexander Chee
“A fly, Sir, may sting a stately horse and make him wince; but, one is but an insect, and the other is a horse still.” MayStillsCriticismHorseCriticsPetInsectsWinceCriticism Of Others Author:Samuel Johnson
“As a critic, I try to stay neutral about movies before I see them, but I really wanted "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot" to be great. It's based on a barbed memoir by Kim Barker called "The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days In Afghanistan And Pakistan." And its stars Tina Fey, out of her comfort zone, just as Barker was a fish out of water when, in 2004, she began covering the Afghanistan occupation for the Chicago Tribune.” TryingWantedStarsWaterStrangeComfortCriticsFishesMemoirZoneOccupationChicagoAfghanistanComfort ZonePakistanCoveringWhiskeyTalibanKimTangoShuffleFeyStrange Days Author:David Edelstein
“There's lots of room to be your own worse critic. It's just you, so I think that's inherit, that voice that's always that's there monitoring everything you do. It's definitely worse; the critic is harder when it's just you. If you're doing a show, then the critic can blame the other actors your with.” IfsThinkingShowsActorsVoiceRoomsHarderBlameCriticsMonitoring Author:Jason Graae
“I can't say what my greatest strength between acting and singing is...I'll leave that to the critics. Maybe my best strength is performance itself, being with the audience and feeling what they feel, bouncing off of them.” FeelsI CanFeelingsActingAudienceStrengthSingingPerformancesCriticsBest Strength Author:Erica Schroeder
“I first came across her [Bae Suah] when I read some elderly male critic castigating her for 'doing violence to the Korean language', which of course was catnip to me, especially as I'd recently discovered Lispector doing pretty much the same to Portuguese.” FirstsCoursesLanguageViolenceCriticsMalesElderlyKoreanPortugueseBae Author:Deborah Smith
“As the great naturalist Charles Darwin saw clearly, individual and collective interests often coincide, as in the invisible hand narrative. But he also saw that in many other cases, interests at the two levels are squarely in conflict, and that in those cases, individual interests generally trump. That simple observation suggests that market failure is often the result not of insufficient competition (the traditional charge from social critics on the Left), but of the very logic of competition itself.” TwoHandsIndividualLeftSocialInterestSimpleLevelsResultsCasesSawsTrumpConflictLogicCompetitionCriticsInvisibleTraditionalObservationNarrativeCollectivesInsufficientNaturalistInvisible HandMarket Failure Author:Bob Frank
“Critics and fans use the music of their youth as reference points. For years, people seriously wondered who "the next Beatles" were going to be, and classic rock bands were the de facto yardstick for rock quality.” PeopleYearsUseNextQualityFansRocksYouthBandCriticsClassicRock BandsYardsticksClassic Rock Author:Michael Azerrad
“I've been among their critics [MBA programs]. Much of what I've seen in business schools is quite non-rigorous. Anecdotal histories are stretched to illustrate favored slogans. Evidence of their effectiveness is similarly anecdotal.” SchoolEvidenceProgramCriticsSlogansEffectivenessBusiness SchoolMbaMba Programs Author:Charles R. Morris
“I'm my own worst critic and I think everyone in the band is a perfectionist.” ThinkingMy OwnWorstBandCriticsPerfectionist Author:Adam Jones
“Critics can be your most important friend. I don't read criticism of my stuff only because when it's bad, it's rough-and when it's good, it's not good enough.” ImportantEnoughStuffCriticismCriticsRoughGood EnoughNot Good Enough Author:Kevin Bacon
“Along with my peers, I gripe about the increasing number of superhero films, and I'm sad that so many critics so uncritically use words like franchise, which should be reserved for your local Burger King.” ShouldUseFilmNumbersKingsCriticsLocalsPeersSuperheroReservedBurgersI'm SadBurger King Author:David Edelstein
“More and more into natural feelings rather than convoluted feelings or tastemaking or what have you. You always need critique, rock critics, but you can't take away people's taste. People are starting to, very slowly, do their own thing.” PeopleNeedsFeelingsNaturalRocksTasteCriticsStartingCritiqueConvolutedNatural Feelings Author:Justin Vernon
“The critics and hardcore music fans, those are the people you have to get to first, so we're really happy about it.” PeopleFirstsFansCriticsReally HappyHardcoreMusic Fans Author:Craig Finn
“The job of the critic, as it might have been conceived in the 1950's or 1960's, was some kind of role of moral arbiter for people, not a huge number of people, but people who were, you know, fairly educated, well-placed people.” PeopleKnowsWellsKindHas BeensMightJobsNumbersMoralRolesHugeCriticsEducatedMight Have Been1960sArbiterHuge Numbers Author:Louis Menand
“The biggest thinker that's influenced my feminism is definitely Bell Hooks, who's a feminist cultural critic, because of her accessibility but also just because she's a genius.” FeminismGeniusCriticsFeministThinkerBellsHookAccessibility Author:Jessica Valenti
“Does he have a double standard for black critics as opposed to white critics?” DoeBlackWhiteStandardsCriticsDouble Standard Author:Cornel West
“Frank Rich, Paul Krugman, Maureen Dowd, a whole host of brilliant, courageous critics say all kinds of things, and he [Barack Obama] treats them with respect. They get invited to the White House. I say the same thing, he talks to me like I'm a Cub Scout.” KindWholeHouseWhiteRichTreatsCriticsBrilliantAll KindsBarackCourageousWhite HouseHostFrankInvitedTalk To MeCubsCub Scout Author:Cornel West
“I'm praying for Barack Obama to stay on the tightrope because I want to fight his right-wing critics. I want to down I want to ensure they don't lie about him. I'm sure they don't demonize him, and too much of that is going on. So I don't want my critiques to be in any way confused with the right-wing critiques, even though I'll fight for the right wing to be wrong in that regard.” WayWantLyingFightingToo MuchPrayingRegardWingsCriticsBarackConfusedCritiqueRight WingDon't Lie Author:Cornel West