“It didn’t pay very much, but it enabled me to get other jobs doing art criticism, which I didn’t want to do very much, but as so often when you exhibit reluctance to do something, people think you must be very good at it. If I had set out to be an art critic, I might never have succeeded.”

Source: The Paris Review (Issue 90, Winter 1983)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Jan. 11, 2026. History

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John Ashbery14

poet from the United States 1927–2017

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“It didn’t pay very much, but it enabled me to get other jobs doing art criticism, which I didn’t want to do very much, but as so often when you exhibit reluctance to do something, people think you must be very good at it. If I had set out to be an art critic, I might never have succeeded.”

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John Ashbery14

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