About Criticism Quotes

#1. Christ, he was paranoid about criticism. I used to say: why doesn't he worry about the team and forget what people are saying? He got Phil Thompson, who was a kid coming through when I was a Liverpool player, to have a go at me. So now I don't talk to him.

Ian St. John

#2. I like to not care that much about criticism, but I do care about it.

Jack Nicholson

#3. I don't care about my "impact" - I only care about the theater as an art form and criticism as an act of writing.

Neil Patrick Harris

#4. Behind the criticism of fashion as an artistic medium is a highly ideological prejudice: against markets, against consumers, against the dynamism of Western commercial society. The debate is not about art but about culture and economics.

Virginia Postrel

#5. I think the thing that I most deplore about American writing ... is a lack of craftsmanship. It comes right down to this - the lack of absolute love for language, the lack of sitting down and working a good idea into a gem of an idea.

Harper Lee

#6. What is new about Barthes's posthumous reputation is the view of him as a writer whose books of criticism and personal musings must be admired as serious and beautiful works of the imagination.

Edmund White

#7. Don't pay any attention to what they write about you. Just measure it in inches.

Andy Warhol

#8. As you know, I have over the years written critically about the U.N. I have consistently stressed in my writings that American leadership is critical to the success of the U.N., an effective U.N., one that is true to the original intent of its charter's framers.

John Bolton

#9. It's so important for people in political groups to learn the difference between productive criticism and not. When it's about something you can change, it's productive. But if it's just like "You are an evil person", you can't change that. There's no way around that.

Kathleen Hanna

#10. I don't think theory adds to criticism. (Methodology does, for better or worse.) Theory's function is to make criticism self-conscious, maybe even a little sheepish, about its ex cathedra pronouncements.

Paul Fry

#11. I would guess that any criticism about Wal-Mart could have some element of truth with 1,500,000 people.

Lee Scott

#12. I get a lot of criticism for telling founders to focus first on making something great, instead of worrying about how to make money. And yet that is exactly what Google did. And Apple, for that matter. You'd think examples like that would be enough to convince people.

Paul Graham

#13. All the criticism is ultimately a blessing in disguise. Because now people know about Malawi [due to the child adoption]. And now people know about the orphans there. And hopefully it's gonna turn around. And a positive is gonna come out of the negative.

Madonna Ciccone

#14. Criticism can be instructive in the sense that it gives readers, including the author of the book, some information about the critic's intelligence, or honesty, or both.

Anonymous

#15. A lot of food criticism has a similar flavor to it, and I'm probably going to write about it in a different way.

Alex Kapranos

#16. The consistency - either the theme from record to record, or the band, the different musicians - it really varies. So if I get criticism, I don't worry about that, because I'm still being creative.

Jason Molina

#17. Litmus test: If you can't describe Ricardo 's Law of Comparative Advantage and explain why people find it counterintuitive, you don't know enough about economics to direct any criticism or praise at " capitalism " because you don't know what other people are referring to when they use that word .

Eliezer Yudkowsky

#18. I believe that comedians do what they do, and then they get credit or criticism for doing it. There's nothing planned about this.

Jim Gaffigan

#19. When we judge or criticize another person, it says nothing about that person; it merely says something about our own need to be critical.

Winston Churchill

#20. I look at my work and make up my mind about it. After that, neither flattery nor criticism matters to me.

Georgia O'Keeffe

#21. Criticism is only words about words, and of what use are words about such words as these?

Gilbert K. Chesterton

#22. Introverts' wounds usually begin in childhood. Our families of origin convey to us messages about introversion, which set us on a path of either self-acceptance or self-criticism.

Adam S. McHugh

#23. We all have our weak moments when we believe the worst things we think about ourselves.

Marty Rubin

#24. If I like a movie, I'm definitely advocating for it, but it's not "you should see this" or "you shouldn't see this." I try to take a longer view about what the movie is doing and where it fits in the context of other things, in the way that certain good literary criticism tries to do the same thing.

Wesley Morris

#25. Most critics write critiques which are by the authors they write critiques about. That would not be so bad, but then most authorswrite works which are by the critics who write critiques about them.

Karl Kraus

#26. What I couldn't help noticing was that I learned more about the novel in a morning by trying to write a page of one than I'd learned in seven years or so of trying to write criticism.

Philip Pullman

#27. There must be courage; there must be no awe. There must be criticism, for humor, to my mind, is encapsulated in criticism. There must be a disciplined eye and a wild mind ... There must be a magnificent disregard of your reader, for if he cannot follow you, there is nothing you can do about it.

Dorothy Parker

#28. I was kind of a volatile personality, very intense. Because of that, I drew some criticism and people would say things about me, and my parents had tried to defend me. I would just tell them don't worry about it. Our day will come.

Kirk Gibson

#29. All my friends are rock critics, so we talk about rock criticism a lot. Because of that, in order to be part of the conversation, you have to have an awareness of what the discussion is.

Chuck Klosterman

#30. Most small business owners are not particularly sophisticated business people. That's not a criticism; they're passionate about cutting hair or cooking food, and that's why they got in the business, not because they have an MBA.

Andrew Mason

#31. I wish theater criticism in this country could be more of a companion piece to the experience than a warning about where not to spend your money.

Anna D. Shapiro

#32. There is 'growth' in admiration..
And 'stagnation' in criticism..
When we 'devalue' others,we get down too..
When we 'lift' others, we go up as well..
The big thing about People, Emotions and its Intelligence..

Abha Maryada Banerjee

#33. When you are writing the kind of criticism you hope you're writing, everything depends on keeping your calm or your cool. You're trying to tell someone about something that they may know nothing about. They depend on you to read or interpret as best as you can.

Darryl Pinckney

#34. One of the nice things about a favorite pop song is that it's an unconditional truce on judgment and musical snobbery. You like the song because you just do, and there need not be any further criticism.

Henry Rollins

#35. Can we have a time-out on the self-criticism for the rest of the evening?"
"Not the rest of the evening. I can do about half an hour and then force of habit takes over.

Sarra Manning

#36. I am not too serious about anything. I believe you have to enjoy yourself to get the most out of your ability. I can take the criticism with the accolades. Neither affects me.

George Brett

#37. Criticism does not make you smarter or better than the one you are criticizing. In fact, the stuff you are critical of in others is the same stuff you don't like about yourself.

Iyanla Vanzant

#38. I don't know very many people in the art world, only socialise with the few I like, and have little time to gnaw my nails with anxiety about any criticism I hear about.

Charles Saatchi

#39. The critics have been writing me off for 20 years. That's nothing new. As far as I know I still have plenty of fans and sell lots of records. Do I care what critics say about me? No, and I don't read reviews.

Madonna Ciccone

#40. Constructive criticism is about finding something good and positive to soften the blow to the real critique of what really went on.

Paula Abdul

#41. I didn't get rattled by the criticisms. It is like delivering a baby. Some might say it has a flat nose or big eyes. But you cannot do anything about it and must learn to live with it.

Kiran Khalap

#42. Self-criticism and negative thoughts about yourself will attract people who reflect this back to you, showing critical behavior and can abuse you physically.

Hina Hashmi

#43. Instead of sniping at her like Mrs. Mi, Mrs. Ting let my mother do all sorts of things she wanted, like reading novels: before, reading a book without a Marxist cover would bring down a rain of criticism about being a bourgeois intellectual.

Jung Chang

#44. [N]o such thing as objective writing, ... every inscription, every traveler's tale, every news account, every piece of technical writing, tells more about the author and his time than it does about the ostensible subject.

Sue Hubbell

#45. I've never really understood the criticism that climbing is inherently selfish, since it could equally be argued about virtually any other hobby or sport. Is gardening selfish?

Alex Honnold

#46. If you tell me bad things about someone, you're telling bad things about me behind me

Miguel El Portugues

#47. Since you are my readers, and I have not been much of a traveler, I will not talk about people a thousand miles off, but come as near home as I can. As the time is short, I will leave out all the flattery, and retain all the criticism.

Henry David Thoreau

#48. No, I wasn't trying to make Nat Turner look stupid. I was trying to make him more human. More like me. Angry, impotent, confused about his own sexuality. Wait a minute, that didn't come out right. Is that microphone really on?

William Styron

#49. I've been as critically rubbished as acclaimed and the worst thing about that is that it usually plays into your own self-criticism.

Rachel Ward

#50. There's a lot of criticism in this job and what we do. It's in front of everybody and for everybody to have their own opinion about what we do. Don't be in this position if you can't handle that criticism.

Holly Holm

#51. Before thinking about what you are going to say, think about what I am saying.

Alireza Salehi Nejad

#52. The truth is: Everyone will judge you. But this depends upon your intellectual capacity whether you are able to distinguish constructive criticism between an insult coming from other people's opinions about you.

Anonymous

#53. Sometimes when you're praised about something, sometimes it's deserved, and sometimes it's not deserved. Same thing with criticism. Sometimes the criticism is deserved, and sometimes it's not deserved.

LaDainian Tomlinson

#54. The four laws of learning are: the first is demonstration of what you want. The second is the criticism of the demonstration. The third is the imitation of the correct model, and the fourth is repetition, over and over until it becomes habit where is you don't think about it.

John Wooden

#55. I'm sure people are badmouthing me. I think one of the interesting parts about the criticism has been the tenor of "how dare he." How dare an insider speak critically about other insiders?

Mark Leibovich

#56. Only an obstinate prejudice about this period (which I will presently try to account for) could blind us to a certain change which comes over the merely literary texts as we pass from the Middle Ages to the sixteenth century.

C.S. Lewis

#57. My only criticism about Quentin Crisp is that the subversive must be ready to subvert themselves. I may dress for myself, but I undress for everybody else, whereas he never did that - he was never prepared to drop a bomb on everything he did.

Sebastian Horsley

#58. I discovered very quickly that criticism is a form of optimism, and that when you are silent about the shortcomings of your society, you're very pessimistic about that society. And it's only when you speak truthfully about it that you show your faith in that society.

Carlos Fuentes

#59. The greater self-confidence an individual possesses, the less inclined he is to put down others. This says a lot about those who constantly belittle.

Richelle E. Goodrich

#60. For most of us even the imagined threat of criticism functions to control our behavior. We are haunted to some degree by questions about our self-worth. As a consequence, we continually attempt to prove to ourselves and others that we are okay people, credible, trustworthy, and competent.

Robert D. Hare

#61. Some people become hypercritical when stressed.
Then again, he hadn't been stressed last week. She giggled, remembering how he'd instructed her on the proper way to fold hand towels. Talk about nitpicky. Perhaps this would be a good time to call it quits.

Cherise Sinclair

#62. When the critic has said everything in his power about a literary text, he has still said nothing; for the very existence of literature implies that it cannot be replaced by non-literature

Tzvetan Todorov

#63. Farber had a huge effect on me as a writer. I don't mean I write like him. Farber is, first of all, a great stylist, a great writer. Anyone can read Manny Farber's film criticism, whether that person is a novelist, a poet, another critic, a historian, and learn a lot about writing by reading him.

Greil Marcus

#64. I would just imagine there's a criticism for just about everything, if you want to take something down. No one's invincible. The Jicks are a work in progress and we don't think everything we do is the bee's knees or something, we're just trying our best to get turned on by what we're doing.

Stephen Malkmus

#65. But I honestly don't read critics. My dad reads absolutely everything ever written about me. He calls me up to read ecstatic reviews, but I always insist that I can't hear them. If you give value to the good reviews, you have to give value to the criticism.

Fiona Apple

#66. There has been a rising tide of criticism about China's treatment of foreign companies.

Rebecca MacKinnon

#67. If there is no criticism, you become lazy. But it should be constructive, and it should be the truth. If it's biased and there's no truth in it, then I don't care about it. If it's true, it helps me grow.

A.R. Rahman

#68. Criticism is always hard to take - we musicians are sensitive. It's always hard when someone says something negative - but you try to learn to just let it roll off and not worry about it.

Joshua Bell

#69. I'd never be where I am if more successful writers hadn't taken an interest in me and done me a good turn - be it chiming in with constructive criticism or giving me sound advice about my career plan.

Sara Sheridan

#70. One difference with the political writings, whether about feminism or class, is that the intent is to change how people think of a certain political reality; whereas with cultural criticism, the goal is to illuminate something that is already there.

Bell Hooks

#71. The usual criticism of a novel about an artist is that, no matter how real he is as a man, he is not real to us as an artist, since we have to take on trust the works of art he produces.

Randall Jarrell

#72. Opening myself to criticism was a big door to go through. You can be afraid about something your whole life, about being out in public where people know your name but not you, and it can cripple your ability to try new things.

Peggy Rathmann

#73. Many French directors, having now realised there was no more real criticism, that the standards of the past have gone, are very offended about the quality of film criticism.

Wim Wenders

#74. We dedicate most of the time worrying about our deficiencies and self-criticism instead of concentrating on our goals and believing in our destination

Sunday Adelaja

#75. The thing about stereotyping is it's usually just throwing rocks into a crowd hoping to hit somebody who deserves it.

Criss Jami

#76. I've never had any problem with criticism. I've given a lot, and I've copped a lot. But I believe I've got a role to play by insisting that women be judged by their contribution - not somebody's view of what they should be about.

Joan Kirner

#77. It's much worse to read criticism about your son than yourself.

George H. W. Bush

#78. I used to read the criticism on blogs about other people - mostly female actresses and singers - and even when they are extremely perfect and harmless, people still go after them. So I figure, if I'm going to get negativity regardless, why do I have to worry about what somebody thinks of me?

Kat Graham

#79. Great companies have high cultures of accountability, it comes with this culture of criticism I was talking about before, and I think our culture is strong on that.

Steve Ballmer

#80. A lot of people who find out about the things I do immediately figure I'm just a pathetic "druggie" with nothing to say that is worth hearing. They talk endless bull shit of "recovery!" They make it sound like some amazing discovery ... don't they know I'm far too busy trying to recover me?

Ashly Lorenzana

#81. I gave up music criticism because of the increasingly obvious conflict of interest. I couldn't say anything bad about the records when I might be meeting that person's manager backstage an hour later.

Stephin Merritt

#82. I will accept comments and criticism about change.

Jimmy Haslam

#83. The great thing about making yourself the villain is nobody's likely to contradict you.

Peter Watts

#84. Unfortunately most criticism is by poseurs. They use their comments about someone else's work as a platform on which to strike poses. What they're really saying is: "Look at me! Look at me!"

Frank Herbert

#85. The best things about writing are the freedom to please yourself creatively, personal accomplishment and the journey of personal growth. The worst is that you alone own the criticism and blame.

Ron Houston

#86. Praise and criticism seem to me to operate exactly on the same level. If you get a great review, it's really thrilling for about ten minutes. If you get a bad review, it's really crushing for ten minutes. Either way, you go on.

Ann Patchett

#87. The Hebrew Bible is the supreme example of that rarest of phenomena, a national literature of self-criticism. Other ancient civilisations recorded their victories. The Israelites recorded their failures. It is what the Mosaic and prophetic books are about.

Jonathan Sacks

#88. It is wrong to be harsh with the New York critics, unless one admits in the same breath that it is a condition of their existence that they should write entertainingly about something which is rarely worth writing about at all.

Raymond Chandler

#89. I know whether of not your statement is true, and you know that I know whether or not it is true, because it is about me. But do you know that your statement is true? This is what I mean by passing judgment.

Daniel Suelo

#90. Learn to be as analytical about things of which you are credulous as you are of those which you criticise.

Idries Shah

#91. Do they think I'm on drugs? That I have a life-threatening illness? That I'm anorexic? Emotionally, it doesn't get easier to hear those criticisms - but it gets easier to be resolute about my reaction to it.

Fiona Apple

#92. Self-criticism is a way of life in North Korea. Everybody has to do it, even the highest party members. Our sessions were once a week on Monday mornings. All through the week, we were supposed to keep a diary, where we wrote about the times we failed to live up to Kim Il-sung's teachings.

Charles Robert Jenkins

#93. The criticism hurts sometimes and I worry about the effect on my family.

David Beckham

#94. Echoing the criticism made of his father's habilis skulls, he added that Lucy's skull was so incomplete that most of it was 'imagination made of plaster of Paris', thus making it impossible to draw any firm conclusion about what species she belonged to.

Richard Leakey

#95. There is something essentially ridiculous about critics, anyway: what is good is good without our saying so, and beneath all our majesty we know this.

Randall Jarrell

#96. If what they are saying about you is true, mend your ways. If it isn't true, forget it, and go on and serve the Lord.

Henry Allen Ironside

#97. In a way, I have to have a dictatorship. I can't be told that I'm wrong. That conflicts with what I was saying earlier about listening. It isn't to do with receiving criticism and responding to other views, it's who has that last decision.

Trevor Nunn

#98. for the first time in a popular novel I was reading about wrongdoing by the then-sacred institution, the FBI. I was reading open criticism and accusation of J. Edgar Hoover himself. I was reading it not from the typewriter of a young radical but from that of an old novelist.

Rex Stout

#99. As a piece of literacy criticism, Freud's best writing is about Dostoyevsky. It's a kind of displaced literacy criticism.

Dennis Potter

#100. As long as scepticism is based on a sound understanding of science it is invaluable, for that is how science progresses. But poor criticism can lead those who are unfamiliar with the science involved into doubting everything about climate change predictions.

Tim Flannery