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Quotes by Critic
"I am utterly bored by celebrity interviews. Most celebrities are devoid of interest."
37
"It seems not to have been written. It is the quintessence of life. It is the basic truth."
37
"Television is what made It's a Wonderful Life the classic it is today."
37
"Real genius of moral insight is a motor which will start any engine."
37
"The man must have a rare recipe for melancholy, who can be dull in Fleet Street."
37
"A further point is that, little by little, in the current universe, everything is slowly being named; nor does this have anything to do with the older Aristotelian universals in which the idea of a chair subsumes all its individual manifestations."
37
"Practically every mental health care practitioner, from the most erudite psychoanalysts to untrained self-help gurus, tell us that it is infinitely more fulfilling and we are all saner if we tell the truth, yet most of us are not rushing to stand up and be counted among the truth tellers. Indeed, as someone committed to being honest in daily life I experience the constant drag of being seen as a 'freak,' for telling the truth, even when I speak truthfully about simple matters. If a friend gives me a gift and asks me to tell him or her whether I like it, I will respond honestly and judiciously; that is to say I will speak the truth in a positive, caring manner. Yet even in this situation, the person who asks for honesty will often express annoyance when given a truthful response."
37
"Also, the commercial media in a superior position, really, to any other corporate lobby, because where would people hear about commercial media or corporate media criticism, where would they hear criticism of them other than in the commercial media?"
37
"Despite being able to demonstrate a very large audience, major advertisers at first wouldn't touch Limbaugh."
37
"It didn't seem remotely possible. I had no idea how people got those jobs, I didn't know what the steps were, it never even dawned on me. It seemed so outside the realm of possibility."
37
"There is no one thoroughly despicable. We cannot descend much lower than an idiot; and an idiot has some advantages over a wise man."
Man,
37
"Anybody in the next centuries wanting to know what it was like to be a poet in the middle of the 20th century should read Kaddish."
37
"There is no connection between the political ideas of our educated class and the deep places of the imagination."
37
"Language is legislation, speech is its code. We do not see the power which is in speech because we forget that all speech is a classification, and that all classifications are oppressive."
36
"It is always well to accept your own shortcomings with candor but to regard those of your friends with polite incredulity."
36
"Commercials on television are similar to sex and taxes; the more talk there is about them, the less likely they are to be curbed."
36
"These are the people who do studies that your carry-out Chinese meals are saturated in fat. I'd just like to meet them! I mean, what do they do for pleasure?"
36
"In some European theaters, it's still not uncommon to have a late start and three LONG intermissions, because people actually eat and drink and converse during the intermissions."
36
"Men's magazines often feature pictures of naked ladies. Women's magazines also often feature pictures of naked ladies. This is because the female body is a beautiful work of art, while the male body is hairy and lumpy and should not be seen by the light of day."
36
"Our democratic richness arrives when we're able to comprehend our collective humanity accurately."
36
"Male supremacy is fused into the language, so that every sentence both heralds and affirms it."
36
"I was not afraid of what I did not like. To overcome dislike of a thing often satisfied one's feeling of honour."
36
"Such discussions help us very little to enjoy what has been well done in art or poetry, to discriminate between what is more and what is less excellent in them, or to use words like beauty, excellence, art, poetry, with a more precise meaning than they would otherwise have."
36
"We find many things to which the prohibition of them constitutes the only temptation."
36
"The supreme satisfaction is to be able to despise one's neighbor and this fact goes far to account for religious intolerance. It is evidently consoling to reflect that the people next door are headed for hell."
36
"Kevin Costner has feathers in his hair and feathers in his head. The Indians should have called him 'Plays with Camera.'"
Hair,
36
"Faulkner sat in our living room and read from Light in August. That was incredible."
36
"The right really dominates radio, and it's amazing how much energy the right spends telling us that the press is slanted to the left when it really isn't. They want to shut other people up. They really don't understand the First Amendment."
36
"If there's one thing I can't stand, it's somebody doing something because I pushed them in that direction."
36
"And they've got to be held accountable; our broadcasting system has to be made accountable; and unless it is, it's going to be very hard to change anything else for the better in this country."
36
"They are words you don't easily forget: I don't have good news."
36
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