Quotes by Critic | Beyond Motive 4/29

top of page

Quotes by Critic

"A love for humanity came over me, and watered and fertilised the fields of my inner world which had been lying fallow, and this love of humanity vented itself in a vast compassion."

"A love for humanity came over me, and watered and fertilised the fields of my inner world which had been lying fallow, and this love of humanity vented itself in a vast compassion."

Georg Brandes, Danish Critic

Love, Compassion, Humanity, Lying

6

"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."

"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."

Walter Pater, English Critic

Beauty, Power, Being, Intellect

6

"Not to discriminate every moment some passionate attitude in those about us, and in the very brilliancy of their gifts some tragic dividing on their ways, is, on this short day of frost and sun, to sleep before evening."

"Not to discriminate every moment some passionate attitude in those about us, and in the very brilliancy of their gifts some tragic dividing on their ways, is, on this short day of frost and sun, to sleep before evening."

Walter Pater, English Critic

Attitude, Day, Evening, Gifts

6

"I keep saying the word "weird" over and over again, but it's the only way I can describe it."

"I keep saying the word "weird" over and over again, but it's the only way I can describe it."

Chuck Klosterman, American Critic

6

"The United States has made a massive effort since the end of the Second World War to secure the dominance of its films in foreign markets - an achievement generally pushed home politically, by writing clauses into various treaties and aid packages."

"The United States has made a massive effort since the end of the Second World War to secure the dominance of its films in foreign markets - an achievement generally pushed home politically, by writing clauses into various treaties and aid packages."

Fredric Jameson, American Critic

Home, War, Achievement, Effort

6

"At first sight experience seems to bury us under a flood of external objects, pressing upon us with a sharp and importunate reality, calling us out of ourselves in a thousand forms of action."

"At first sight experience seems to bury us under a flood of external objects, pressing upon us with a sharp and importunate reality, calling us out of ourselves in a thousand forms of action."

Walter Pater, English Critic

Experience, Action, First, Reality

6

"Is this film more interesting than a documentary of the same actors having lunch?"

"Is this film more interesting than a documentary of the same actors having lunch?"

Gene Siskel, American Critic

Actor, Actors, Film

6

"Photography does not create eternity, as art does; it embalms time, rescuing it simply from its proper corruption."

"Photography does not create eternity, as art does; it embalms time, rescuing it simply from its proper corruption."

Andre Bazin, French Critic

Art, Time, Corruption, Eternity

6

"The camera introduces us to unconscious optics as does psychoanalysis to unconscious impulses."

"The camera introduces us to unconscious optics as does psychoanalysis to unconscious impulses."

Walter Benjamin, German Critic

Photography, Impulses, Psychoanalysis, Unconscious

6

"Summer is the time when one sheds one's tensions with one's clothes, and the right kind of day is jeweled balm for the battered spirit. A few of those days and you can become drunk with the belief that all's right with the world."

"Summer is the time when one sheds one's tensions with one's clothes, and the right kind of day is jeweled balm for the battered spirit. A few of those days and you can become drunk with the belief that all's right with the world."

Ada Louise Huxtable, American Critic

Time, Belief, Clothes, Day

6

"Two persons love in one another the future good which they aid one another to unfold."

"Two persons love in one another the future good which they aid one another to unfold."

Margaret Fuller, American Critic

6

"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."

"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."

Andrea Dworkin, American Critic

Freedom, Femininity, Will

6

"Being a Jew is like walking in the wind or swimming: you are touched at all points and conscious everywhere."

"Being a Jew is like walking in the wind or swimming: you are touched at all points and conscious everywhere."

Lionel Trilling, American Critic

Being, Walking, Wind

6

"Aphorisms are bad for novels. They stick in the reader's teeth."

"Aphorisms are bad for novels. They stick in the reader's teeth."

Anatole Broyard, American Critic

6

"I'm not surprised that Spielberg was able to capture the heroism of Schindler; so many of his movies are about the better part of mankind."

"I'm not surprised that Spielberg was able to capture the heroism of Schindler; so many of his movies are about the better part of mankind."

Gene Siskel, American Critic

Movies, Heroism, Mankind

6

"Great passions may give us a quickened sense of life, ecstasy and sorrow of love, the various forms of enthusiastic activity, disinterested or otherwise, which comes naturally to many of us."

"Great passions may give us a quickened sense of life, ecstasy and sorrow of love, the various forms of enthusiastic activity, disinterested or otherwise, which comes naturally to many of us."

Walter Pater, English Critic

Life, Love, Ecstasy, May

6

"The argument between wives and whores is an old one; each one thinking that whatever she is, at least she is not the other."

"The argument between wives and whores is an old one; each one thinking that whatever she is, at least she is not the other."

Andrea Dworkin, American Critic

Argument, Old, Thinking, Wives

6

"There is no connection between the political ideas of our educated class and the deep places of the imagination."

"There is no connection between the political ideas of our educated class and the deep places of the imagination."

Lionel Trilling, American Critic

Imagination, Ideas, Class, Connection

6

"A disaster where marble has been substituted for imagination."

"A disaster where marble has been substituted for imagination."

Ada Louise Huxtable, American Critic

Imagination, Disaster

5

"It is now life and not art that requires the willing suspension of disbelief."

"It is now life and not art that requires the willing suspension of disbelief."

Lionel Trilling, American Critic

5

"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."

"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."

Roland Barthes, French Critic

Power, Forget, Language, Legislation

5

"His acting remains forever fixed in a time that never dates."

"His acting remains forever fixed in a time that never dates."

Vincent Canby, American Critic

5

"In most of the European countries - France stands out in its resistance to this particular form of American cultural imperialism - the national film industries were forced onto the defensive after the war by such binding agreements."

"In most of the European countries - France stands out in its resistance to this particular form of American cultural imperialism - the national film industries were forced onto the defensive after the war by such binding agreements."

Fredric Jameson, American Critic

War, Countries, Film

5

"He played the king as if afraid someone else would play the ace."

"He played the king as if afraid someone else would play the ace."

John Mason Brown, American Critic

Performance, Play

5

"If it is, in reality, capitalism that is the motor force behind the destructive forms of globalization, then it must be in their capacity to neutralize or transform this particular mode of exploitation that one can best test these various forms of resistance to the West."

"If it is, in reality, capitalism that is the motor force behind the destructive forms of globalization, then it must be in their capacity to neutralize or transform this particular mode of exploitation that one can best test these various forms of resistance to the West."

Fredric Jameson, American Critic

Capitalism, Exploitation, Force, Globalization

5

"The busier we are the more leisure we have."

"The busier we are the more leisure we have."

William Hazlitt, English Critic

Routine, Leisure

5

"Most style is not honest enough."

"Most style is not honest enough."

F. L. Lucas, English Critic

5

"Hack fiction exploits curiosity without really satisfying it or making connections between it and anything else in the world."

"Hack fiction exploits curiosity without really satisfying it or making connections between it and anything else in the world."

Vincent Canby, American Critic

Curiosity, Fiction, World

5

"Cunning is the art of concealing our own defects, and discovering other people's weaknesses."

"Cunning is the art of concealing our own defects, and discovering other people's weaknesses."

William Hazlitt, English Critic

Art, People, Cunning

5

"A nickname is the heaviest stone that the devil can throw at a man. It is a bugbear to the imagination, and, though we do not believe in it, it still haunts our apprehensions."

"A nickname is the heaviest stone that the devil can throw at a man. It is a bugbear to the imagination, and, though we do not believe in it, it still haunts our apprehensions."

William Hazlitt, English Critic

Imagination, Devil, Man

5

"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?"

"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?"

Leslie Fiedler, American Critic

5

"Here we are in the 70's when everything really is horrible and it really stinks. The mass media, everything on television everything everywhere is just rotten. You know it's just really boring and really evil, ugly and worse."

"Here we are in the 70's when everything really is horrible and it really stinks. The mass media, everything on television everything everywhere is just rotten. You know it's just really boring and really evil, ugly and worse."

Lester Bangs, American Critic

Evil, Media, Television, Ugly

5

"The true humanist maintains a just balance between sympathy and selection."

"The true humanist maintains a just balance between sympathy and selection."

Irving Babbitt, American Critic

Sympathy, Balance

5

"The only actor who I think probably might have possibly taken a swing at me if he could have would be Burt Reynolds. He used to call Roger and me the Bruise Brothers, out of Chicago."

"The only actor who I think probably might have possibly taken a swing at me if he could have would be Burt Reynolds. He used to call Roger and me the Bruise Brothers, out of Chicago."

Gene Siskel, American Critic

Actor, Brothers, Chicago

5

"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."

"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."

Robert McChesney, American Critic

5

"I was not content to believe in a personal devil and serve him, in the ordinary sense of the word. I wanted to get hold of him personally and become his chief of staff."

"I was not content to believe in a personal devil and serve him, in the ordinary sense of the word. I wanted to get hold of him personally and become his chief of staff."

Aleister Crowley, English Critic

Content, Devil, Sense, Word

5

"A very intimate sense of the expressiveness of outward things, which ponders, listens, penetrates, where the earlier, less developed consciousness passed lightly by, is an important element in the general temper of our modern poetry."

"A very intimate sense of the expressiveness of outward things, which ponders, listens, penetrates, where the earlier, less developed consciousness passed lightly by, is an important element in the general temper of our modern poetry."

Walter Pater, English Critic

Poetry, Consciousness, Sense, Temper

5

"In America, we have to learn to be patient enough to figure out what somebody is saying. Somebody might actually be saying something."

"In America, we have to learn to be patient enough to figure out what somebody is saying. Somebody might actually be saying something."

Stanley Crouch, American Critic

Understanding, America, Saying

5

"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."

"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."

Donal Henahan, American Critic

Musicians, Spontaneity

5

"The result is a picture that represents so much of what I want and rarely get from a movie - a couple of hours filled with characters who are as exciting as the people I know in real life."

"The result is a picture that represents so much of what I want and rarely get from a movie - a couple of hours filled with characters who are as exciting as the people I know in real life."

Gene Siskel, American Critic

Life, People, Result, Want

5

"For precocity some great price is always demanded sooner or later in life."

"For precocity some great price is always demanded sooner or later in life."

Margaret Fuller, American Critic

5

"A city whose living immediacy is so urgent that when I am in it I lose all sense of the past."

"A city whose living immediacy is so urgent that when I am in it I lose all sense of the past."

Kenneth Tynan, English Critic

Living, Past, Sense

5

"We are all ill: but even a universal sickness implies an idea of health."

"We are all ill: but even a universal sickness implies an idea of health."

Lionel Trilling, American Critic

Health, Idea, Sickness

5

"Our culture peculiarly honors the act of blaming, which it takes as the sign of virtue and intellect."

"Our culture peculiarly honors the act of blaming, which it takes as the sign of virtue and intellect."

Lionel Trilling, American Critic

Virtue, Act, Culture, Intellect

5

"Experience, already reduced to a group of impressions, is ringed round for each one of us by that thick wall of personality through which no real voice has ever pierced on its way to us, or from us to that which we can only conjecture to be without."

"Experience, already reduced to a group of impressions, is ringed round for each one of us by that thick wall of personality through which no real voice has ever pierced on its way to us, or from us to that which we can only conjecture to be without."

Walter Pater, English Critic

Experience, Personality, Voice

5

"Follow your passion."

"Follow your passion."

Joel Siegel, American Critic

5

"I was fortunate that I was at newspapers for eight years, where I wrote at least five or six stories every week. You get used to interviewing lots of different people about a lot of different things. And they aren't things you know about until you do the story."

"I was fortunate that I was at newspapers for eight years, where I wrote at least five or six stories every week. You get used to interviewing lots of different people about a lot of different things. And they aren't things you know about until you do the story."

Chuck Klosterman, American Critic

People, Newspapers, Years

5

"The essays are different because ultimately it's things I'm interested in, and I'm really just writing about myself and using those subjects as a prism."

"The essays are different because ultimately it's things I'm interested in, and I'm really just writing about myself and using those subjects as a prism."

Chuck Klosterman, American Critic

5

"Thank you to all for your prayers and good wishes. It gave me the strength to persevere and warmed my heart."

"Thank you to all for your prayers and good wishes. It gave me the strength to persevere and warmed my heart."

Steven Cojocaru, Canadian Critic

Heart, Strength, Wishes

5

"That's probably when I get the most angry at American movies, when they just so cynically manipulate the audience without even trying to give a good story."

"That's probably when I get the most angry at American movies, when they just so cynically manipulate the audience without even trying to give a good story."

Gene Siskel, American Critic

5

bottom of page