86 quotes found
“Some people insist that 'mediocre' is better than 'best.' They delight in clipping wings because they themselves can't fly. They despise brains because they have none.”
“I started this dirty quote business when I noticed that I only tend to read authors when their quotes convince me of wit and style. In a world overflowing with bad literature and corrupted product-...”
“I think theres a ton of fear in the perception of romance in part because theres something very realistic in great romance namely, that women have the right to demand relationships that are based ...”
“I have spent a good many years sincetoo many, I thinkbeing ashamed about what I write. I think I was forty before I realized that almost every writer of fiction or poetry who has ever published a l...”
“Asking a working writer what he thinks about critics is like asking a lamp-post what it feels about dogs.", October 31, 1977]”
“Genius feels like an over extended Helium balloon about to burst, and everyone criticizes you for not having a conventional way of coping with it.”
“Critics are to authors what dogs are to lamp-posts.”
“Work freely and rollickingly as though you were talking to a friend who loves you. Mentally (at least three or four times a day) thumb your nose at all know-it-alls, jeerers, critics, doubters.”
“Whatever is produced in haste goes hastily to waste.”
“Is not a critic," asks Professor Stoll, "... a judge, who does not explore his own consciousness, but determines the author's meaning or intention, as if the poem were a will, a contract, or the co...”
“The man is in his work,read it if you want to know about him.”
“Respond to critics with humility. Most people are experts in finding problems with whatever others do. That should not be a surprise to you.”
“I have learned to read the papers calmly and not to hate the fools I read about.”
“Don't base your decision on the opinions of those who don't want to see you grow.”
“When you're different, sometimes you don't see the millions of people who accept you for what you are. All you notice is the person who doesn't.”
“To The Critics Suicide has made more than one mediocre author glorious before he's able to achieve that sobering "second edition" making his a suicide that waits until it's justified. But I've take...”
“A critic is a man created to praise greater men than himself, but he is never able to find them.”
“The highest as the lowest form of criticism is a mode of autobiography. Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault.”
“On writing, my advice is the same to all. If you want to be a writer, write. Write and write and write. If you stop, start again. Save everything that you write. If you feel blocked, write through ...”
“The last madness Ill probably persist in is to believe myself a poet: it will be up to the critics to cure me.”
