“Be eager to lend a patient ear to the opinions of others and think long and hard whether whoever finds fault has reason or not to censure you. And if the answer is yes, correct the fault. If no, give the impression that you have not heard him, or if he is a man whom you respect, explain to him why he is mistaken.” IfsThinkingMenGivingLongHardReasonAnswersOpinionHeardEarsFaultsCriticsPatientImpressionMistakenCensure Author:Leonardo da Vinci
“One way to cope with the provocations of novel art is to rest firm and maintain solid standards... set by the critic's long-practiced taste and by his conviction that only those innovations will be significant which promote the established direction of advanced art.” WayLongArtNovelTasteStandardsArt IsInnovationCriticsConvictionSignificantOne WayFirmProvocationStandards Set Author:Leo Steinberg
“There is nothing wrong with good schmaltz, nothing wrong with good heart... The critics think I'm kind of corny. Well, I am corny. As long as people respond to it, I'm okay.” PeopleThinkingWellsHeartKindLongOkayCriticsCornyGood Heart Author:Walt Disney
“Sometimes I'd like everybody who is stuck, or lost, or vacant to stay that way and keep silent for as long as it takes, but that's the critic in me talking.” WayLongSometimesLostTalkingSilentCriticsStuckVacant Author:David Toop
“Ironically, Henry James' biography comforts me & I long to make known to him his posthumous reputation he wrote, in pain, gave all his life (which is more than I could think of doing I have Ted, will have children but few friends) & the critics insulted & mocked him, readers didn't read him.” ThinkingChildrenLongPainKnownReaderComfortCriticsReputationBiographiesInsultedFew FriendsPosthumous Book:The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath Source: The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath
“When modernist poetry, or what not so long ago passed for modernist poetry, can reach the stage where the following piece by Mr. Ezra Pound is seriously offered as a poem, there is some justification for the plain reader and orthodox critic who shrinks from anything that may be labelled 'modernist' either in terms of condemnation or approbation. Better he thinks, that ten authentic poets should be left for posterity to discover than one charlatan should be allowed to steal into the Temple of Fame.” ThinkingShouldMayLongLeftTermPiecesStagePoetReaderFameTenCriticsFollowingStealingTemplesPoundsOrthodoxJustificationLong AgoShrinksPosterityCondemnationCharlatans Author:Laura Riding
“You find very few critics who approach their job with a combination of information and enthusiasm and humility that makes for a good critic. But there is nothing wrong with critics as long as people don't pay any attention to them. I mean, nobody wants to put them out of a job and a good critic is not necessarily a dead critic. It's just that people take what a critic says as a fact rather than an opinion, and you have to know whether the opinion of the critic is informed or uninformed, intelligent of stupid -- but most people don't take the trouble.” PeopleKnowsWantMeanLongFactsJobsPayAttentionOpinionTroubleStupidInformationHumilityApproachCriticismIntelligentCriticsEnthusiasmCombinationUninformed Book:Conversations with Edward Albee Source: Conversations with Edward Albee