Criticism quotes



It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by the dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat. (Theodore Roosevelt)

Parodies and caricatures are the most penetrating of criticisms. (Aldous Huxley)

…the most useful criticism in any art [form] is new work done with the same tools [as previous art].(John Szarkowski)

Criticism comes easier than craftsmanship. (Zeuxis)

A critic is a man who knows the way but can’t drive the car. (Kenneth Tynan)

There were a lot of working professionals who were just sort of appalled at our attitude and probably at our punkish disrespect for mainstream, predominantly superhero, comics in general. They didn’t think it was legitimate to criticize comics in that sort of high-toned way. Mainstream creators took a certain degree of pride in their work, but it was pride in them from the perspective of hard-core fans, and they weren’t really imposing standards on them, other than craft standards, which had devolved from the history of comics—and the history of comics is mostly just a history of crap. So when we came in and applied these “exalted” standards to comics, creators were, frankly, pissed off. (Gary Groth)

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