Best Reviewers Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings Page 2

“I am never much interested in the effects of what I write....I seldom read with any attention the reviews of my...books. Two times out of three I know something about the reviewer, and in very few cases have I any respect for his judgments. Thus his praise, if he praises me, leaves me unmoved. I can't recall any review that has even influenced me in the slightest. I live in sort of a vacuum, and I suspect that most other writers do, too. It is hard to imagine one of the great ones paying any serious attention to contemporary opinion.”

Ifs Knows Writing I Can Two Book Hard Three Attention Opinion Cases Imagine Effects Serious Judgment Praise Contemporary Suspects Reviews Recalls Leaving Me Vacuums Great Ones Reviewers

Author:H. L. Mencken

“I am not alone in bearing grudges against reviewers who have doomed a book's chances because they've missed the point, the tone, everything.”

Book Chance Tone Doomed Not Alone Grudge Reviewers

Author:Ann Beattie

“I have a friend who says that reviewers are the tickbirds of the literary rhinoceros-but he is being kind. Tickbirds perform a valuable service to the rhino and the rhino hardly notices the birds.”

Kind Bird Valuable Be Kind Reviewers Rhinoceros Rhinos

Author:John Irving

“Critics are giving marks for originality, acting, photography and scripting, while mass audiences are more drawn to familiarity of genre, stars they would like to have sex with or plots that are more likely to make their dates have sex with them. Reviewers are doing their day's work, cinema-goers are escaping from theirs: this leads to an inevitable difference of response. It is, though, wrong to conclude that reviewers are completely useless. Books, movies and shows may be critic-proof, but the egos and psyches of the people who make them very rarely are.”

“There's an enormous difference between being a critic and a reviewer. The reviewer reacts to the experience of that book.”

Book Differences Critics Enormous Reviewers

Author:Christopher Lehmann-Haupt

“I am a bad reporter because everything seems to me worth reporting; and a bad reviewer because every sentence in every book suggests a separate essay.”

Book Seems Sentences Reporters Essays Reviewers

Author:Gilbert K. Chesterton

“I believe passionately in preemptive pessimism, especially before a book comes out. I expect the worst both from reviewers and sales, and then, with any luck, I may be proved wrong.”

Believe May Book I Believe Worst Luck Pessimism Reviewers

Author:Antony Beevor

“Richard Price got a million dollar advance on one fake film book based on a paragraph outline and is able to seduce gullible White reviewers who know less about ghetto life than he. The New York Times has devoted more space to Price's tourist, ghetto writing than to any Black writer in history.”

Knows Writing Book Able Film Black Space White Millions New York Dollars Fake Devoted Million Dollars Tourists New York Times Outlines Ghetto Paragraph Seducing Reviewers Gullible

Author:Ishmael Reed

“Lazy reviewers look up other people's reviews and they write the same thing, so you get people writing crap based on crap.”

People Writing Looks Look Up Lazy Reviews Crap Reviewers

Author:Joni Mitchell

“Memoirs have at their heart a content that "happened" to someone in real life. Is that what you are itching at in your question, so that if you are a reviewer or you are writing a critique you might feel as if you are stepping on someone's actual face?”

Ifs Feels Writing Heart Real Might Faces Life Is Happened Real Life Memoir Critique Reviewers Itching

Author:Lidia Yuknavitch

“Some reviewers have read this as cynicism but I don't see it that way. When I say "I am so sick / of pretending to be me," it's exhaustion at the everyday performance, in life, in art, even in our most intimate encounters.”

Way Art Performances Sick Everyday Intimate Encounters Pretending Cynicism Exhaustion Reviewers So Sick

Author:Randall Mann

“What can you think when one review says "this album is brilliant, and all the songs flow into the utmost brilliant song 'The Upside-Down Cross'" then another review says "this album is brilliant, except for that horrible and pointless song 'The Upside-Down Cross'," and another review will say "Jeffrey really sounds confident and relaxed on this new album", the next reviewer says "Jeffrey sounds more depressed and awful than ever" - these totally contrasting reviews happen all the time!”

Thinking Happens Song Next Sound Flow Crosses Albums Brilliant Horrible Awful Reviews Relaxed Pointless Upside Down Reviewers

Author:Jeffrey Lewis

“Some reviewer might be out there saying, obviously Edge of Darkness didn't come off because of the script, blah blah blah, but everybody has read the script, except the journalist attacking it.”

Might Darkness Scripts Edges Journalist Attacking Reviewers Blah

Author:William Monahan

“The main advantage of being a reviewer is that you read a lot. A lot of books get sent to you, and you have an amazing vantage point from which to observe what's going on in contemporary fiction - not only genre stuff, the whole spectrum.”

Book Whole Stuff Fiction Advantage Contemporary Genre Spectrum Contemporary Fiction Reviewers Vantage Point

Author:Lev Grossman

“It never stops me from saying what I want to say about Ethiopia, the fact that a tour company is paid for me to go there. Book reviewers don't pay for the books they review.”

Want Book Facts Pay Company Paid Reviews Reviewers Ethiopia Book Review

Author:John Gimlette

“I naively thought I was making a low-budget movie. But, when the film came out, the Daily Variety reviewer at that time who was named Art Murphy described it as an exploitation film. I had never heard that term before. Roger never used it. So that's how I learned that I had made an exploitation film.”

Art Made Film Used Term Heard Lows Variety Budgets Exploitation Roger Murphy Reviewers

Author:Stephanie Rothman

“That's what people need to remember about reviewers; opinions can be all over the spectrum, and you just need to find a reviewer whose tastes match your own.”

People Needs Remember Opinion Taste Spectrum Reviewers

Author:Kevin J. Anderson

“The thing about albums is just coming up with new material. I just got tired of that syndrome of putting out an album and then some reviewer claims that this song or that song has something to do with x y or z.”

Song Materials Claims Tired Albums Syndromes Reviewers

Author:Van Morrison

“In the media, a reviewer has his personal vision but it's passed along to a million readers or whatever. He might think that this particular song sounds like Jo Blow. Or like a Bo Diddley record that he heard six years ago. But the artist who made the record may never have even heard the Bo Diddley song. We all respond differently.”

Thinking Years May Made Might Artist Song Sound Vision Millions Records Heard Media Particular Reader Six Years Ago Blow Reviewers Personal Vision

Author:Van Morrison

“I have to accept the fact that I was putting out records that reviewers were going to get an image from.”

Facts Accepting Records Reviewers

Author:Van Morrison

“When an older writer tries to tell a younger writer through a review what kind of career she should be pursuing, it tends to speak to the reviewer's anxieties rather than the book itself.”

Should Trying Kind Book Speak Careers Anxiety Reviews Reviewers

Author:Jennifer Weiner

“If most of the reviewers are white cis men, if most of the distributors are white cis men, most of the executives in history have been white cis men. Most of the people who have been giving awards to people are people who've already been in the business - retired white cis men. They've been creating a body of narrative forever.”

People Ifs Men Giving Has Beens Body White Forever Creating Narrative Executives Awards Retired Reviewers Distributors

Author:Jill Soloway

“I come from a nation where fantastic fiction has a very low status, unless it fits into some very specific categories or is written by already established authors. I don't by any means try to hide what I write, but the way people think in categories here is pretty extreme: it blots out discussing the actual work on its own terms. That's made me loath to talk about my own work in terms of genre, because once you get a label, it sticks and poof go a slew of potential readers and reviewers because eww, fantasy cooties.”

People Thinking Way Writing Trying Mean Made Nations Term My Own Fiction Fantasy Written Reader Fit Lows Sticks Extremes Fantastic Labels Genre Categories Discussing Reviewers Cooties

Author:Karin Tidbeck

“As for whether genre considerations influence what I write, they don't at all, but I might sell more books if they did. The Night Journal is a hodge-podge of historical fiction, western, mystery, and contemporary domestic drama. It doesn't settle into a specific market, reviewers have a hard time describing it, and sometimes it gets classified weirdly in bookstores. But from a writer's standpoint, I like that it's hard to categorize.”

“I write with the idea that nobody will care about what I've written; I publish with the idea that nobody will care either. Which is why every time somebody cares enough to read a novel of mine, or respond to it - a reader, a reviewer, even my own editor - I'm a little bit amazed, and so hugely grateful.”

Writing Littles Ideas Enough Care Bits My Own Novel Written Mines Reader Little Bit Grateful Editors Amazed Publish Reviewers

Author:Lauren Grodstein

“When reviewers take the trouble to compliment a writer on her style, it is usually because she has made it easy for them to slide from one sentence to another like an otter down a slope.”

Made Easy Trouble Style Sentences Made It Compliment Slides Slopes Reviewers One Sentence Otters

Author:William H. Gass

“When you become published and become a reviewer, piles of books come along and you are pushed by fashion and what you are commissioned to do.”

Book Fashion Reviewers

Author:Hilary Mantel

“I sometimes get tired because I can seldom read a book for pleasure. I'm like the play reviewer who happens to go to a play on an off day and can't help but view it critically.”

I Can Book Sometimes Play Helping Happens Pleasure Views Tired Because I Can Reviewers

Author:Robert Cormier

“When you are out of favor, so to speak, it's not just the reviewers. It's the editors, the publishers, they don't want you anymore, you're just gone and you've been written out of history as effectively as the old Stalinists would write someone else out, take their photograph out of a book.”

Want Writing Book Speak Gone Written Photograph Favors Editors Publishers Reviewers

Author:Frederic Tuten

“The thing we call critics are not really reviewers, they are not really critics. They don't have the discipline to write what we would term as critique - it's really just reviewers. They have a common man kind of taste. If you watch them overall, they are not different from the box-office. That's my view.”

Ifs Men Writing Kind Different Term Views Common Watches Discipline Taste Office Critics Boxes Critique Common Man Box Office Reviewers

Author:Ang Lee

“I would be far more critical than any reviewer could be of my own work. So I simply don't read them.”

Would Be My Own Critical Reviewers

Author:John Banville

“Over the years, during television interviews, whenever the host or the reviewer or whoever gets cynical and nasty with me, I will behave accordingly. I will defend myself.”

Years Television Behave Interviews Host Cynical Nasty Reviewers

Author:John Lydon

“The unflattering reviews are painful for short periods of time; the badly written ones are deeply, deeply insulting. That reviewer took no time to really read the book.”

Book Pain Written Periods Painful Reviews Insulting Reviewers

Author:Toni Morrison

“I would like to spare the time and effort of hack reviewers and, generally, persons who move their lips when reading.”

Persons Moving Reading Effort Lips Reading Books Spares Hacks Reviewers

Book:The Luzhin Defense

Source: The Luzhin Defense

“The reviewer is a singularly detested enemy because he is, unlike the hapless artist, invulnerable.”

Artist Enemy Scientism Reviewers

Author:Carroll O'Connor

“We don't really need reviewers, just first-night reporters who will tell us faithfully whether or not the audience liked the show.”

Needs Firsts Shows Night Audience Reporters Reviewers

Author:Carroll O'Connor

“I think reviewers have become particularly venomous because, in a way, the power has been sucked from them. A 15-year-old can write a review on the Internet and it means as much as Roger Ebert's review, and that just makes Roger Ebert mad, so he comes out harder and stronger.”

Thinking Way Writing Years Mean Has Beens Internet Harder Stronger Mad Reviews Roger Reviewers Venomous

Author:Todd Phillips

“Abstract painting is abstract. It confronts you. There was a reviewer a while back who wrote that my pictures didn't have any beginning or any end. He didn't mean it as a compliment, but it was.”

Mean Ends Artist Painting Abstract Compliment Reviewers Abstract Art Expressionism Painting Art Abstract Painting Abstract Expressionism

Author:Jackson Pollock

“What bothers most critics of my work is the goofiness. One reviewer said I need to make up my mind if want to be funny or serious. My response is that I will make up my mind when God does, because life is a commingling of the sacred and the profane, good and evil. To try and separate them is fallacy.”

Ifs Want Needs Trying Mind Doe Said Life Is Evil Serious Sacred Response Critics Bother Good And Evil Fallacy Profane Reviewers Goofiness

Author:Tom Robbins

“Unless a reviewer has the courage to give you unqualified praise, I say ignore the bastard.”

Giving Praise Reviewers Unqualified

Author:John Steinbeck

“Any reviewer who expresses rage and loathing for a novel is preposterous. He or she is like a person who has put on full armor and attacked a hot fudge sundae.”

Source: Palm Sunday: An Autobiographical Collage

“Professional reviewers read so many bad books in the course of duty that they get an unhealthy craving for arresting phrases.”

Book Courses Literature Duty Phrases Reading Books Craving Unhealthy Reviewers Arresting

Book:The Essays, Articles and Reviews of Evelyn Waugh

Source: The Essays, Articles and Reviews of Evelyn Waugh

“What's happening to movie critics is no different from what has been meted out to book, dance, theater, and fine-arts reviewers and reporters in the cultural deforestation that has driven refugees into the diffuse clatter of the Internet and Twitter, where some adapt and thrive - such as Roger Ebert - while others disappear without a twinkle.”

Inspirational Has Beens Art Book Different Fine Internet Happenings Theater Dance Critics Disappear Driven Thrive Reporters Refugee Roger Fine Arts Reviewers Deforestation Movie Critic

Author:James Wolcott

“Critics should find meaningful work.”

Should Critics Meaningful Reviewers Meaningful Work

Author:John Grisham

“Too often do reviewers remind us of the mob of Astrologers, Chaldeans, and Soothsayers gathered before 'the writing on the wall' and unable to read the characters or make known the interpretation.”

Writing Character Known Wall Interpretation Reviewers Writing On The Wall

Author:Charlotte Bronte

“(on A History of Western Philosophy) I was sometimes accused by reviewers of writing not a true history but a biased account of the events that I arbitrarily chose to write of. But to my mind, a man without a bias cannot write interesting history - if, indeed, such man exists.”

Ifs Men Writing Mind Sometimes Philosophy Interesting Events Accounts Western Bias Accused Biased Reviewers Western Philosophy

Book:The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell

Source: The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell

“Satire is tragedy plus time. You give it enough time, the public, the reviewers will allow you to satirize it. Which is rather ridiculous, when you think about it.”

Thinking Giving Enough Time Tragedy Ridiculous Satire Sarcasm Plus Enough Time Reviewers Tragedy And Comedy

Author:Lenny Bruce

“The plot is so tired that even this reviewer, who in infancy was let drop by a nurse with the result that she has ever since been mystified by amateur coin tricks, was able to guess the identity of the murderer from the middle of the book.”

Book Able Results Middle Identity Tired Tricks Plot Nurse Coins Murderer Infancy Reviewers

Book:A month of Saturdays: thirty-one famous pieces by

Source: A month of Saturdays: thirty-one famous pieces by

“You know reviewers, they are the wind in their own sails.”

Knows Wind Sail Reviewers

Book:The Lacuna

Source: The Lacuna

“At the evident risk of seeming ridiculous, I want to begin by saying that I have tried for much of my life to write as if I was composing my sentences to be read posthumously. I hope this isn't too melodramatic or self-centred a way of saying that I attempt to write as if I did not care what reviewers said, what peers thought, or what prevailing opinions may be.”

Ifs Way Want Writing May Said Self Care Opinion Risk Sentences Ridiculous Peers Evident Seeming Composing Prevailing Reviewers

Author:Christopher Hitchens

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Reviewers Quotes