I was never confident about finishing a book, but friends encouraged me. When I finished my first book, it was accepted by a publisher right away and became an instant bestseller. One male critic called it the most shocking book he ever read.
The sheer complexity of writing a play always had dazzled me. In an effort to understand it, I became a critic.
I never really thought of myself as a TV critic. I was presenting TV before I was writing about it.
I'm not a critic. I'm an actor. I see the role I get given on the page. I try to bring it to life as best as I can.
'Chef' is a dish of arroz con pollo served with a smile but not much style. The critic in the film would give it a low grade, for agreeability without ambition.
It's difficult to see yourself up on screen without being a critic.
Give a critic an inch, he'll write a play.
Half of the secular unrest and dismal, profane sadness of modern society comes from the vain ideas that every man is bound to be a critic for life.
The only real evidence that any critic may bring before his gaze is the finished poem.
I'm my own most merciless critic onstage.
I've got the public. I don't care about the critics. I did at one time. I don't any more. I did when I needed compliments. But if you get a lot of compliments, you don't need a critic to tell you, 'This should be done another way.'
If I were related to Monet, I don't know if I would be comfortable becoming an artist because it's too much, the comparison. If I wrote a book and put it out, the comparison to my great-grandfather, the comparison would be hilarious. Every critic, it would be their dream, they'd tear me apart.
To be a fashion critic is easy because you just say, 'I love it, I hate it,' but life is more than love and hate.
Never trust the artist. Trust the tale. The proper function of the critic is to save the tale from the artist who created it.
I've never been much of a craftsman, in an educated way. But I think just the experience of writing makes the avenues I follow a little more efficient in some ways. At the same time, when you're young, you're a little more fearless, and there's less of an internal critic.
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.
I'm a harsh critic of the status quo.
If I think I weigh too much, I'll lose weight; if my hair looks stupid, I'll cut it. I guess I'm my harshest critic. I'm not easily satisfied.
I DJ and I'm a harsh critic of DJs.
The key thing is you can be the only person, your own critic.
When you're releasing an album, you never know how it's going to go. You never know how a critic is going to receive it or how much it's going to sell.
I haven't read a single word that a critic has written about me since 1994.
The relationship between critic and writer is similar to the one between the pigeon and the statue.
My primary ambition is to be a fiction writer... Being a critic wasn't an aspiration of mine.
My daughter, Lila, is my style critic. She'll say, 'No, Mummy, you can't wear that.' She's very good. I do trust her instinct.
My mom was like, 'Get your law degree first, become a lawyer, and then you can tell jokes on the weekends. You can be a lawyer and just throw jokes into your presentations.' Now she's like, 'Listen, you need to come up with new material.' All of a sudden, my mom's a critic.
I won't quit until I get run over by a truck, a producer or a critic.
Men whose sense of taste is destroyed by sickness, sometimes think honey sour. A diseased eye does not see many things which do exist, and notes many things which do not exist. The same thing frequently takes place with regard to the force of words, when the critic is inferior to the writer.
It's what all writers dream of, that our work finds a measure of immortality that long outlives the words of any critic.
I'm so hard on myself and a really harsh critic of my work.
I owe a great deal to Harold Hobson, doyen drama critic of the 'U.K. Sunday Times,' who championed me as Shakespeare's Richard II at the 1969 Edinburgh Festival.
I know as a critic I'm required to have a well-armored heart. I must be a cynical wise guy to show my great sophistication. No pushover, me.
I don't think of myself as a critic at all. I'm a reviewer and essayist. I mainly hope to share with others my pleasure in the books and authors I write about, though sometimes I do need to cavil and point out shortcomings.
Anytime that another artist or a critic that is well-respected says something nice about you, you're always thankful and hope that you can live up to that.
I'm a tough critic on myself.
Since I'm a story-oriented critic, sometimes it's difficult to discuss issues without defining them. At the same time, I try not to give away anything that hasn't been given away in first half, in TV commercials, or that isn't obvious from the set-up of the movie. My editors are aware of this tendency of mine and read carefully for spoilers.