Criticism

"The sharper and more far-reaching our criticism, the more good it will do."

"If we who take part in the Congresses criticise them impartially, we do so solely to prevent the repetition of mistakes."

"You only silence critics when you have something to hide."

"In the ideological field, the question of who will win in the struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie has not been really settled yet. We still have to wage a protracted struggle against bourgeois and petty bourgeois ideology. It is wrong not to understand this and to give up ideological struggle. All erroneous ideas, all poisonous weeds, all ghosts and monsters, must be subjected to criticism; in no circumstance should they be allowed to spread unchecked. However, the criticism should be fully reasoned, analytical and convincing, and not rough, bureaucratic, metaphysical or dogmatic."

"In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face, is that in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is more meaningful than our criticism designating it so. But there are times when a critic truly risks something, and that is in the discovery and defense of the new. The world is often unkind to new talent, new creations, the new needs friends... Not everyone can become a great artist, but a great artist can come from anywhere."

"It is the critic's duty, I believe, to deliver honest opinions to posterity on the immediate experience of viewing movies, hoping that successors will respect their honest opinions and find them useful, rather than sneer at their insensitivity."

"...there is no longer any serious antagonism between critics, film distributors and moviemakers... we are now... welcomed respectfully by publicists, our notices, as they used to be called, filleted for favourable comments, but generally disregarded. In these placid days one looks back nostalgically to the anger an unfavourable review could elicit."

"There were a lot of working professionals who were just sort of appalled at our attitude and probably at our punkish disrespect for mainstream, predominantly superhero, comics in general. They didn't think it was legitimate to criticize comics in that sort of high-toned way. Mainstream creators took a certain degree of pride in their work, but it was pride in them from the perspective of hard-core fans, and they weren't really imposing standards on them, other than craft standards, which had devolved from the history of comics—and the history of comics is mostly just a history of crap. So when we came in and applied these "exalted" standards to comics, creators were, frankly, pissed off."

"The trick to writing comics criticism meant for an audience beyond the cult, I think—and, really, if the criticism is good enough and is in any kind of a general-interest venue, the audience will come—is subtle exposition: I try to write for a general audience, and give them everything they need to know, without making it look like I'm explaining something esoteric. In a lot of ways, the long comics reviews I write are just book reviews; I figure out a hook or some kind of engaging way of addressing the subject, I assess the thing in question, and I don't make a big deal out of the fact that it's a comic, any more than Kael would hem and haw over the fact that what she was reviewing was a motion picture."

"...using the language of film suggests that comics are somehow subordinate to film as a discipline: a movie that doesn't move."

"The most useful criticism in any art [form] is new work done with the same tools [as previous art]."

"When I read rules of criticism, I immediately inquire after the works of the author who has written them, and by that means discover what it is he likes in a composition."

"A man must serve his time to every trade Save censure—critics all are ready made. Take hackney'd jokes from Miller, got by rote, With just enough of learning to misquote; A mind well skill'd to find or forge a fault; A turn for punning, call it Attic salt; To Jeffrey go, be silent and discreet, His pay is just ten sterling pounds per sheet; Fear not to lie, 'twill seem a lucky hit; Shrink not from blasphemy, 'twill pass for wit; Care not for feeling—pass your proper jest, And stand a critic, hated yet caress'd."

"As soon Seek roses in December—ice in June, Hope, constancy in wind, or corn in chaff; Believe a woman or an epitaph, Or any other thing that's false, before You trust in critics."

"Dijó la sarten á la caldera, quitate allá ojinegra."

"Who shall dispute what the Reviewers say? Their word's sufficient; and to ask a reason, In such a state as theirs, is downright treason."

"Though by whim, envy, or resentment led, They damn those authors whom they never read."

"A servile race Who, in mere want of fault, all merit place; Who blind obedience pay to ancient schools, Bigots to Greece, and slaves to musty rules."

"But spite of all the criticizing elves, Those who would make us feel—must feel themselves."

"Reviewers are usually people who would have been poets, historians, biographers, etc., if they could: they have tried their talents at one or the other, and have failed; therefore they turn critics."

"Too nicely Jonson knew the critic's part, Nature in him was almost lost in art."

"There are some Critics so with Spleen diseased, They scarcely come inclining to be pleased: And sure he must have more than mortal Skill, Who pleases one against his Will."

"La critique est aisée, et l'art est difficile."

"The press, the pulpit, and the stage, Conspire to censure and expose our age."

"You know who critics are?—the men who have failed in literature and art."

"It is much easier to be critical than to be correct."

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

"Those who do not read criticism will rarely merit to be criticised."

"Ill writers are usually the sharpest censors."

"They who write ill, and they who ne'er durst write, Turn critics out of mere revenge and spite."

"All who (like him) have writ ill plays before, For they, like thieves, condemned, are hangmen made, To execute the members of their trade."

""I'm an owl: you're another. Sir Critic, good day." And the barber kept on shaving."

"Blame where you must, be candid where you can, And be each critic the Good-natured Man."

"Reviewers are forever telling authors they can't understand them. The author might often reply: Is that my fault?"

"The readers and the hearers like my books, And yet some writers cannot them digest; But what care I? for when I make a feast, I would my guests should praise it, not the cooks."

"When Poets' plots in plays are damn'd for spite, They critics turn and damn the rest that write."

"Unmoved though Witlings sneer and Rivals rail; Studious to please, yet not ashamed to fail."

"Lynx envers nos pareils, et taupes envers nous."

"A wise scepticism is the first attribute of a good critic."

"Nature fits all her children with something to do, He who would write and can't write, can surely review; Can set up a small booth as critic and sell us his Petty conceit and his pettier jealousies."

"In truth it may be laid down as an almost universal rule that good poets are bad critics."

"The opinion of the great body of the reading public is very materially influenced even by the unsupported assertions of those who assume a right to criticise."

"To check young Genius' proud career, The slaves who now his throne invaded, Made Criticism his prime Vizier, And from that hour his glories faded."

"And you, my Critics! in the chequer'd shade, Admire new light thro' holes yourselves have made."

"I lose my patience, and I own it too, When works are censur'd, not as bad but new: While if our Elders break all reason's laws, These fools demand not pardon but Applause."

"For some in ancient books delight, Others prefer what moderns write; Now I should be extremely loth Not to be thought expert in both."

"Die Kritik nimmt oft dem Baume Raupen und Blüthen mit einander."

"When in the full perfection of decay, Turn vinegar, and come again in play."

"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."

"A poet that fails in writing becomes often a morose critic; the weak and insipid white wine makes at length excellent vinegar."