Some famous (and infamous) critiques by and about critics...
"Never trust the artist. Trust
the tale. The proper function of the critic is to save the tale
from the artist who created it."
--ATTRIBUTION: D.H. (David Herbert) Lawrence (1885-1930), British
author. Originally published by T. Seltzer (1923). "The Spirit
of Place," Studies in Classic American Literature,
ch. 1, Doubleday (1959).
"A wise scepticism
is the first attribute of a good critic."
--ATTRIBUTION: James Russell Lowell (1819-1891) Among my Books.
First Series. Shakespeare once more.
"People ask you
for criticism, but they only want praise."
--Somerset Maugham.
"What we ask of
[the critic] is that he should find out for us more than we can
find out for ourselves."
--Arthur Symons.
"Impersonal criticism
is like an impersonal fist fight or an impersonal marriage, and
as successful."
--George Jean Nathan.
"Just in proportion
as he is sentient and restless, just in proportion as he reacts
and reciprocates and penetrates, is the critic a valuable instrument."
--Henry James.
"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."
--ATTRIBUTION: Kenneth Tynan (1927-1980), British critic. Tynan
Right and Left, foreword (1967).
"The critic lives
at second hand. He writes about. The poem, the novel, or the play
must be given to him; criticism exists by the grace of other men's
genius. By virtue of style, criticism can itself become literature.
But usually this occurs only when the writer is acting as critic
of his own work or as outrider to his own poetics, when the criticism
of Coleridge is work in progress or that of T.S. Eliot propaganda."
--ATTRIBUTION: George Steiner (b. 1929), French-born U.S. critic,
novelist. "Humane Literacy," Language
and Silence, Atheneum (1967).
"A critic who
uses new quotations is making important changes."
--ATTRIBUTION: Mason Cooley (b. 1927), U.S. aphorist. City
Aphorisms, Thirteenth Selection, New York (1994).
"All that a critic,
as critic, can give poets is the deadly encouragement that never
ceases to remind them of how heavy their inheritance is."
--ATTRIBUTION: Harold Bloom (b. 1930), U.S. critic. A Map of
Misreading, ch. 1, "Poetic Origins and Final Phases,"
Oxford University Press (1975).
"The literary
critic, or the critic of any other specific form of artistic expression,
may detach himself from the world for as long as the work of art
he is contemplating appears to do the same."
--ATTRIBUTION: Clive James (b. 1939), Australian writer, critic.
Glued to the Box, introduction (1983).
"The true critic is he who bears within himself the dreams
and ideas and feelings of myriad generations, and to whom no form
of thought is alien, no emotional impulse obscure. ATTRIBUTION:
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), Anglo-Irish playwright, author. Review
of Walter Pater, Appreciations, with an Essay on Style, published
in Speaker (March 22, 1890).
"The great critic
... must be a philosopher, for from philosophy he will learn serenity,
impartiality, and the transitoriness of human things."
--ATTRIBUTION: W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965), British author.
The Summing
Up, ch. 60 (1938).
"The good critic
is he who relates the adventures of his soul among masterpieces."
-- ATTRIBUTION: Anatole France (1844-1924), French author. Dedicatory
letter to The Literary Life (1888).
"The true critic
is a scrupulous avoider of formulae; he refrains from statements
which pretend to be literally true; he finds fact nowhere and
approximation always."
--ATTRIBUTION: T.S. (Thomas Stearns) Eliot (1888-1965), U.S.-British
modernist poet. Eliot's doctoral dissertation in philosophy; submitted
to Harvard in 1916. Knowledge and Experience in the Philosophy
of F.H. Bradley, ch. 7, Columbia University Press (1964).
"In the arts,
the critic is the only independent source of information. The
rest is advertising."
--ATTRIBUTION: Pauline Kael (b. 1919), U.S. film critic. Newsweek
(New York, Dec. 24, 1973).
"Give me the critic
bred in Nature's school,
Who neither talks by rote, nor thinks by rule;
Who feeling's honest dictates still obeys,
And dares, without a precedent, to praise."
--ATTRIBUTION: Martin Archer, Sir Shee (1769-1850), Irish portrait
painter, president of Royal Academy. Rhymes on Art, or the Remonstrance
of a Painter, pt. 2 (1805).
"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."
--ATTRIBUTION: Harold Bloom Newsweek 18 Aug 86
"It is the business
of the critic, as of the portrait painter, to synthesize a million
glances at his subject that will tell the onlooker at one glance
the truth about him, as ultimate as he can get it."
--ATTRIBUTION: Rebecca West (1892-1983), British novelist and
literary critic. The Strange Necessity, ch. 6 (1928).
"Temperament is
the primary requisite for the critic-a temperament exquisitely
susceptible to beauty, and to the various impressions that beauty
gives us."
--ATTRIBUTION: Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), Anglo-Irish playwright,
author. Gilbert, in The Critic as Artist, pt. 2, published
in Intentions (1891).
"The common reader
... differs from the critic and the scholar. He is worse educated,
and nature has not gifted him so generously. He reads for his
own pleasure rather than to impart knowledge or correct the opinions
of others. Above all, he is guided by an instinct to create for
himself, out of whatever odds and ends he can come by, some kind
of whole-a portrait of a man, a sketch of an age, a theory of
the art of writing. He never ceases, as he reads, to run up some
rickety and ramshackle fabric which shall give him the temporary
satisfaction of looking sufficiently like the real object to allow
of affection, laughter, and argument. Hasty, inaccurate, and superficial,
snatching now this poem, now that scrap of old furniture without
caring where he finds it or of what nature it may be so long as
it serves his purpose and rounds his structure; his deficiencies
as a critic
are too obvious to be pointed out."
--ATTRIBUTION: Virginia Woolf (1882-1941), British novelist, essayist,
and diarist. The Common Reader, ch. 1 (1925).
"What is important,
then, is not that the critic should possess a correct abstract
definition of beauty for the intellect, but a certain kind of
temperament, the power of being deeply moved by the presence of
beautiful objects."
--ATTRIBUTION: Walter Pater (1839-1894), British writer, educator.
Studies in the History of the Renaissance, "Preface,"
p. x, Macmillan (1873).
"Technique is
really personality. That is the reason why the artist cannot teach
it, why the pupil cannot learn it, and why the aesthetic critic
can understand it. To the great poet, there is only one method
of music-his own. To the great painter, there is only one manner
of painting-that which he himself employs. The aesthetic critic,
and the aesthetic critic alone, can appreciate all forms and all
modes. It is to him that Art makes her appeal."
--ATTRIBUTION: Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), Anglo-Irish playwright,
author. Gilbert, in The Critic as Artist, pt. 2, published
in Intentions (1891).
"When the author
has no idea of what to reply to a critic, he then likes to say:
you could not do it better anyway. This is the same as if a dogmatic
philosopher reproached a skeptic for not being able to devise
a system."
--ATTRIBUTION: Friedrich Von Schlegel (1772-1829), German philosopher.
Aphorism 66 in Selected Aphorisms from the Athenaeum (1798),
translated by Ernst Behler and Roman Struc, Dialogue on Poetry
and Literary Aphorisms, Pennsylvania University Press (1968).
"Reviewers ...
must normally function as huff-and-puff artists blowing laggard
theatergoers stageward."
--ATTRIBUTION: Walter Kerr's 1975 statement quoted in New York
Times 30 Sep 83
"Professional
reviewers read so many bad books in the course of duty that they
get an unhealthy craving for arresting phrases."
--ATTRIBUTION: Evelyn Waugh quoted in Donat Gallagher ed A
Little Order: A Selection from His
Journalism Little, Brown 81
"Unlike other
people, our reviewers are powerful because they believe in nothing."
--ATTRIBUTION: Harold Clurman (1901-1980), U.S. stage director,
critic. quoted in Robert Brustein, "The Vitality of Harold
Clurman," pt. 1, Who Needs Theatre (1987).
"Actors yearn
for the perfect director, athletes for the perfect coach, priests
for the perfect pope, presidents for the perfect historian. Writers
hunger for the perfect reviewer."
--ATTRIBUTION: Thomas Fleming "The War between Writers and
Reviewers" New York Times 6 Jan 85
"Some years ago,
writing about stage adaptations of fiction, I noted: "There
is a simple law governing the dramatization of novels: if it is
worth doing, it can't be done; if it can be done, it's not worth
doing." Certain reviewers did me the honor of calling this
Simon's Law, and I might as well state it now as far as the screen
is concerned, "Simon's Law" may still serve as a useful
warning but has no legality. For two reasons. First, because unlike
the stage, the screen possesses as many resources as fiction,
so that, for example, extended narration is possible on screen,
backed up by an extensive visual scenario, but not on the stage,
where it must become monotonous; similarly, stream of consciousness
has its filmic equivalents in montage, voice-over dialogue, closeups
and extreme closeups, dissolves, etc., whereas on stage, as mere
verbiage, it cannot fail to bore. Secondly, because the screen
can fully illustrate what the novel can only name or describe.
Of course, this is a mixed blessing, because such illustration
can make things overexplicit and oppressive; still, it is there
as a resource for those who can effectively handle it."
--ATTRIBUTION: John Simon (b. 1925), Yugoslavian-born U.S. film
and drama critic. Movies Into Film, Dial (1971).
"Of all the cants
which are canted in this canting world, though the cant of hypocrites
may be the worst, the cant of criticism is the most tormenting!"
--ATTRIBUTION: Laurence Sterne (1713-1768), British author. Tristram
Shandy, bk. 3, ch. 12 (1759-1767).
"It is much easier to be critical than to be correct."
--ATTRIBUTION: Benjamin, Earl of Beaconsfield Disraeli (1804-1881)
Speech, Jan. 24, 1860.
"You know who critics are?--the men who have failed in literature
and art."
--ATTRIBUTION: Benjamin, Earl of Beaconsfield Disraeli (1804-1881)
Lothair. Chap. xxxv.
"Reviewers are usually people who would have been poets,
historians, biographers, if they could; they have tried their
talents at one or the other, and have failed; therefore they turn
critics."
--ATTRIBUTION: Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) Lectures
on Shakespeare and Milton, p. 36. Delivered 1811-1812.
"Reviewers, with some rare exceptions, are a most stupid
and malignant race. As a bankrupt thief turns thief-taker in despair,
so an unsuccessful author turns critic."
--Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822), British poet. Fragments
of Adonais, preface (1821).
"Asking a working
actor what he thinks about critics is like asking a lamp-post
how it feels about dogs"
--Christopher Hampton.
"Drama critics
are there to show gay actors what it is like to have a wife."
--Hugh Leonard.
"The pleasure
of criticizing robs us of the pleasure of being moved by some
very fine things."
--Jean de La Bruyere.
"There is perhaps,
no more dangerous man in the world than the man with the sensibilities
of an artist but without creative talent. With luck such men make
wonderful theatrical impresarios and interior decorators, or else
they become mass murderers or critics."
--Barry Humphries.
"Most critics
are so domesticated as to seem institutions--as they stand there
between reader and writer, so different from either, they remind
one of the Wall standing between Pyramus and Thisbe."
--Jarrell Randall, Essay, 1952.
"It is not the
critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man
stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The
credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose
face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly,
who errs and comes short again and again, who knows the great
enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy
cause, who at best knows achievement and who at the worst if he
fails at least fails while daring greatly so his place shall never
be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor
defeat."
--Theodore Roosevelt.
"Narrator: And
of course, with the birth of the artist came the inevitable afterbirth
- the critic."
--Mel Brooks, History of the World Part I.
"A critic, after
a life devoted to spoiling the pleasure of others, was astonished
to find himself in eternal hellfire. "Judge not, lest ye
be Judged," giggled a passing fiend, and all Hades rocked
with laughter at this wit. Moral: When you have all Eternity to
get through, it is a blessing to be among those who are easily
amused."
--ATTRIBUTION: Stan Washburn (b. 1943), U.S. artist. Caption accompanying
an illustration for the letter C.. A Moral Alphabet of Vice
and Folly, Arbor House (1986).
"A critic is a
bundle of biases held loosely together by a sense of taste."
--ATTRIBUTION: Whitney Balliet (b. 1926), U.S. author. Dinosaurs
in the Morning, introductory note (1962).
"A critic is a
reader who ruminates. Thus, he should have more than one stomach."
--ATTRIBUTION: Friedrich Von Schlegel (1772-1829), German philosopher.
Aphorism 27 in Selected Aphorisms from the Lyceum (1797),
translated by Ernst Behler and Roman Struc, Dialogue on Poetry
and Literary Aphorisms, Pennsylvania University Press (1968).
"The Critic spits
on what is done - Gives it a wipe - and all is gone."
--ATTRIBUTION: Thomas Hood (1799-1845), British poet. The Poet's
Fate (l. 3-4).
"The critic roams
through culture, looking for prey."
--ATTRIBUTION: Mason Cooley (b. 1927), U.S. aphorist. City
Aphorisms, Eleventh Selection, New
York (1993).
"Give a critic
an inch, he'll write a play."
--ATTRIBUTION: John Steinbeck (1902-1968), U.S. author. "On
Critics," Writers at Work, Fourth Series, ed. George
Plimpton (1977).
"Any critic is
entitled to wrong judgments, of course. But certain lapses of
judgment indicate the radical failure of an entire sensibility."
--ATTRIBUTION: Susan Sontag (b. 1933), U.S. essayist. "The
Literary Criticism of George Lukács," Against Interpretation
(1966).
"The critic leaves
at curtain fall
To find, in starting to review it,
He scarcely saw the play at all
For starting to review it."
--ATTRIBUTION: New York Times 19 Sep 65
"Deconstruction
glorifies the critic, humiliates the author, and makes the reader
wonder why he bothered."
--ATTRIBUTION: Mason Cooley (b. 1927), U.S. aphorist. City
Aphorisms, Ninth Selection, New York (1992).
"The art of the
critic in a nutshell: to coin slogans without betraying ideas.
The slogans of an inadequate criticism peddle ideas to fashion."
--ATTRIBUTION: Walter Benjamin (1892-1940), German critic, philosopher.
repr. In One-Way Street and Other Writings (1978). "Post
No Bills: The Critic's Technique in Thirteen Theses," One-Way
Street (1928).
"You do not become
a critic until it has been completely established to your own
satisfaction that you cannot be a poet."
--ATTRIBUTION: Théophile Gautier (1811-1872), French poet,
novelist, critic. Trans. 1943. Mademoiselle de Maupin,
preface (1834).
"Let us consider
the critic, therefore, as a discoverer of discoveries."
--ATTRIBUTION: Milan Kundera (b. 1929), Czechoslovakian author,
critic. "On Criticism, Aesthetics, and Europe," Review
of Contemporary Fiction (Summer 1989).
"Has anybody ever
seen a dramatic critic in the daytime? Of course not. They come
out after dark, up to no good."
--ATTRIBUTION: P G Wodehouse New York Mirror 27 May 55
"The critic is
a man who prefers the indolence of opinion to the trials ofaction."
--ATTRIBUTION: John Mason Brown Town & Country May
66
"A drama critic
is a man who leaves no turn unstoned."
--ATTRIBUTION: George Bernard Shaw Quoted in New York Times
5 Nov 50 SUBJECTS: Communications & the Arts: Theater: Playwrights,
Producers & Directors
"Time is the only
critic without ambition."
--ATTRIBUTION: John Steinbeck (1902-1968), U.S. author. Writers
at Work, "On Critics," Fourth Series, ed.
George Plimpton (1977).
"A sweeping statement
is the only statement worth listening to. The critic without faith
gives balanced opinions, usually about second-rate writers."
--ATTRIBUTION: Patrick Kavanagh (1905-1967), Irish poet, author.
"Signposts," Collected Prose (1967).
"Of course you're
always at liberty to judge the critic. Judge people as critics,
however, and you'll condemn them all!"
--ATTRIBUTION: Henry James (1843-1916), U.S. author. Ralph Touchett
to Isabel Archer, in The Portrait of a Lady, ch. 23 (1881).
"I won't quit
until I get run over by a truck, a producer or a critic."
--ATTRIBUTION: Jack Lemmon on returning to the stage, Newsweek
5 May 86
"One of us is
obviously mistaken."
--ATTRIBUTION: William Saroyan to a British critic who had panned
his latest play, New York Mirror 10 Jun 60
"So long as there
is one pretty girl left on the stage, the professional undertakers
may hold up their burial of the theater."
--ATTRIBUTION: George Jean Nathan Theatre Arts Jul 58
"To speak of morals
in art is to speak of legislature in sex. Art is the sex of the
imagination."
--ATTRIBUTION: George Jean Nathan (1882-1958), U.S. critic. "Art,"
American Mercury (July 1929).
"I have always
thought that the surest proof of talent is its condescension to
genius."
--ATTRIBUTION: On George Jean Nathan's tolerance of Sinclair Lewis,
Dorothy and Red Houghton Mifflin 63
"Criticism is
infested with the cant of materialism, which assumes that manual
skill and activity is the first merit of all men, and disparages
such as say and do not, overlooking the fact, that some men, namely,
poets, are natural sayers, sent into the world to the end of expression,
and confounds them with those whose province is action, but who
quit to imitate the sayers."
--ATTRIBUTION: Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), U.S. essayist,
poet, philosopher. "The Poet," Essays, Second
Series (1844).
"Maybe they weren't
punks at all, but New York drama critics."
--ATTRIBUTION: Tennessee Williams on being mugged in Key West
FL, People 7 May 79
"I would like
to spare the time and effort of hack reviewers-and, generally,
persons who move their lips when reading."
--ATTRIBUTION: Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977), Russian-born U.S.
novelist, poet. The Defense, foreword (1964).
"Little old ladies
of both sexes. Why do I let them bother me?"
--ATTRIBUTION: John O'Hara on reviewers, quoted by Thomas Fleming
"The War Between Writers and Reviewers" New York
Times 6 Jan 85
"The critic has
to educate the public; the artist has to educate the critic."
--ATTRIBUTION: Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), Anglo-Irish playwright,
author. letter, Aug. 16, 1890, to the editor of the Scots Observer.
In answer to criticisms leveled at Wilde, The Picture of Dorian
Gray.
"On an occasion of this kind
it becomes more than a moral duty to speak one's mind, it becomes
a pleasure."
--Oscar Wilde, The Importance of
Being Earnest.