“Criticism will need an injection of humility — that is, a recognition of its role as ancillary to the arts, needed only occasionally in a temporary capacity. Since the critic exists only for introducing and explaining, he must be readily intelligible; he has no special vocabulary: criticism is in no way a science or a system.”
"Culture High and Dry" (1984), p. 20
The Culture We Deserve (1989)
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Jacques Barzun46
Historian 1907–2012Related quotes
“He only has the right to criticize who has the heart to help.”
Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States
Original quote from William Penn (1693): They have a Right to censure, that have a Heart to help: The rest is Cruelty, not Justice.
Misattributed
Northrop Frye (1912–1991) Canadian literary critic and literary theorist
"Quotes", Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays (1957), Polemical Introduction
George Steiner (1929–2020) American writer
"Humane Literacy".
Language and Silence: Essays 1958-1966 (1967)
David Brin (1950) novelist, short story writer
"Interview de David Brin" at ActuSF.com (March 2008) http://www.actusf.com/spip/article-5739.html
“A critic can only review the book he has read, not the one which the writer wrote.”
Mignon McLaughlin (1913–1983) American journalist
The Complete Neurotic's Notebook (1981), Unclassified
“In the arts, the critic is the only independent source of information. The rest is advertising.”
Pauline Kael (1919–2001) American film critic
Newsweek (1973-12-24).
Dana Gioia (1950) American writer
"The Anonymity of the Regional Poet: Ted Kooser," from Can Poetry Matter? Essays on Poetry and American Culture (1992)
Essays