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Quotes by Critic
"There is nothing more demoralizing than a small but adequate income."
57
"The new job of art is to sit on the wall and get more expensive."
57
"No one ever approaches perfection except by stealth, and unknown to themselves."
57
"Only when manhood is dead - and it will perish when ravaged femininity no longer sustains it - only then will we know what it is to be free."
57
"It seems that it is madder never to abandon one's self than often to be infatuated; better to be wounded, a captive and a slave, than always to walk in armor."
Self,
56
"The first prerogative of an artist in any medium is to make a fool of himself."
56
"A grave blockhead should always go about with a lively one - they show one another off to the best advantage."
56
"In the arts, the critic is the only independent source of information. The rest is advertising."
56
"Science is always discovering odd scraps of magical wisdom and making a tremendous fuss about its cleverness."
55
"All art constantly aspires towards the condition of music."
55
"Discourse is fleeting, but junk mail is forever."
55
"The only vice that cannot be forgiven is hypocrisy. The repentance of a hypocrite is itself hypocrisy."
55
"I am not, in the ordinary acceptation of the term, a good-natured man; that is, many things annoy me besides what interferes with my own ease and interest. I hate a lie; a piece of injustice wounds me to the quick, though nothing but the report of it reach me. Therefore I have made many enemies and few friends; for the public know nothing of well-wishers, and keep a wary eye on those who would reform them."
55
"Critics? How do they happen? I know how it happened to me. I would send a poem or story to a magazine and they would say this doesn't suit our needs precisely but on the other hand you sound interesting. Would you be interested in doing a review?"
54
"No, I see it as meaning very little at the moment because none of the groups are about anything."
54
"Our struggle for liberation has significance only if it takes place within a feminist movement that has as its fundamental goal the liberation of all people."
54
"There is no life to be found in violence. Every act of violence brings us closer to death. Whether it's the mundane violence we do to our bodies by overeating toxic food or drink or the extreme violence of child abuse, domestic warfare, life-threatening poverty, addiction, or state terrorism."
54
"The significance of feminist movement (when it is not co-opted by opportunistic, reactionary forces) is that it offers a new ideological meeting ground for the sexes, a space for criticism, struggle, and transformation."
54
"Among the delights of Summer were picnics to the woods."
54
"Aphorisms are bad for novels. They stick in the reader's teeth."
54
"Today a reader, tomorrow a leader."
53
"How far the existence of the Academy has influenced French literature, either for good or for evil, is an extremely dubious question."
53
"There is something supremely reassuring about television; the worst is always yet to come."
53
"It might be argued that genuine spontaneity is not really possible or desirable so long as printed scores of great works exist. All modern musicians are, for better or worse, prisoners of Gutenberg."
53
"The best ally you can have in breaking up a street fight is a grandmother."
53
"We are human, and nothing is more interesting to us than humanity."
53
"We all get swept up in the hype machine. Nobody is immune to that."
53
"Anyone is to be pitied who has just sense enough to perceive his deficiencies."
53
"You know, a left-winger, the barrier to success if you're on the left in commercial radio is a mile and a half higher than it is if you're on the right."
52
"I think that probably the - I don't give quotes to studios. They have to get those out of the paper or from television. So they wouldn't have had my quote opening day."
52
"The humanitarian would, of course, have us meddle in foreign affairs as part of his program of world service."
52
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