ABOUT CRITICS
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"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; 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 nor defeat."
- Theodore Roosevelt

"I never met anybody who said when they were a kid, "I wanna grow up and be a critic."
- Richard Pryor

"A good review from the critics is just another stay of execution."
- Dustin Hoffman

"The only thing that bugs me is critics. It’s like shooting at a flying saucer as it tries to land, without giving the occupants a chance to identify themselves."
- Jimi Hendrix

"I approach reading reviews the way some people anticipate anal warts."
- Roseanne

(On critic Clive Barnes) "Giving Clive Barnes his CBE for services to the theatre is like giving Goering the DFC for services to the RAF."
- Alan Bennett

(On coping with hostile criticism) "I cried all the way to the bank."
- Liberace

"Critics are just cut-throat bandits in the paths of fame."
- Robert Burns

"Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you’re a mile away and you have their shoes."
- Jack Handy

"Critics are pygmies with poison darts who live in the valley of the sleeping giants."
- Dagobert D Runes

"A drama critic is a person who surprises the playwright by informing him what he meant."
- Wilson Mizner

"My first short story was harshly denounced by one particular critic. I brooded and made caustic remarks about then man. Then one day I reread the story and realised he had been correct. It was shallow and badly constructed. I never forgot the incident and years later, when the Luftwaffe were bombing London, I shone a light on the critic’s house."
- Somerset Maugham

If I keep all my bad notices, I’d need two houses.
- Roger Moore

A critic is one who leaves no turn unstoned.
- George Bernard Shaw

(Telephoning a critic from the bathroom) "I have your review in front of me and soon it will be behind me."
- George Bernard Shaw

"Pay no attention to what critics say. Remember, a statue has never been set up in honour of a critic."
- Jean Sibelius

"I never read a book before reviewing it; it prejudices a man so."
- Rev. Sydney Smith

"A bad review is like baking a cake with all the best ingredients and having someone sit on it."
- Danielle Steel

"Critics search for the wrong word which, to give them credit, they eventually find."
- Peter Ustinov

"Having critics praise you is like having the hangman say you’ve got a pretty neck."
- Eli Wallach

"Every actor in his heart believes everything bad that’s printed about him."
- Orson Welles

"The T.V critic, who wouldn’t think of going to an automobile plant and selecting one car rolling off the assembly line to criticise, will isolate one of a comedian’s shows at random, lash it to his typewriter and pelt it to death with snide nouns, verbs, pronouns, adverbs, prepositions, and conjunctions."
- Fred Allen

"A bad review is even less important than whether it is raining in Patagonia."
- Iris Murdoch

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