“Critics disagree about almost every quality of a writer’s work; and when some agree about a quality, they disagree about whether it is to be praised or blamed, nurtured or rooted out. After enough criticism the writer is covered with lipstick and bruises, and the two are surprisingly evenly distributed.”

—  Randall Jarrell

“Poets, Critics, and Readers”, p. 99
No Other Book: Selected Essays (1999)

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poet, critic, novelist, essayist 1914–1965

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