One who enjoys finding errors will then start creating errors to find.

The only time I’ve ever learned anything from a review was when John Lanchester wrote a piece in the Guardian about my second novel, The Heather Blazing. He said that, together with the previous novel,...

When I took over as chair of the fashion program, I was horrified that only the faculty member was allowed to speak in a critique. I’m talking about perfectly nurturing teachers. But the rule was...

Actually, writers have no business writing about their own works. They either wax conceited, saying things like: ‘My brilliance is possibly most apparent in my dazzling short story, “The Cookiepants Hypotenuse.”‘ Or else they get...

There was and still is a tremendous fear that poor and working-class Americans might one day come to understand where their political interests reside. Personally, I think the elites worry too much about that. We...

There is something essentially ridiculous about critics, anyway: what is good is good without our saying so, and beneath all our majesty we know this.

The “norm” for humanity is love.Brutality is an aberration.We are not sinners by nature.We learn to be bad.We are taught to stray from our good paths.We are made to be crazy by other people who...

Lambhood and tigerishness may be found in either gender, and in the same individual at different times.

Interpretation is the revenge of the intellectual upon art.

We live in a time that demands a discourse of both critique and possibility, one that recognizes that without an informed citizenry, collective struggle, and viable social movements, democracy will slip out of our reach...

A social critic is someone whose work revolves around where and how our successes are failing us.

Feminism’s failings do not mean we should eschew feminism entirely. People do terrible things all the time, but we don’t regularly disown our humanity. We disavow the terrible things. We should disavow the failures of...

Metaphysics… is nothing but the inventory of all we possess through pure reason, ordered systematically. Nothing here can escape us, because what reason brings forth entirely out of itself cannot be hidden, but is brought...

Those who find it hypocritical of others to use, say, a smartphone, to speak ill of capitalism, needs to be reminded that capitalism is an ideology, not a technology.

He was a young man of savage & unexpected originality, a diseased genius & quite frankly, a mad genius. Imbeciles grow insane & in their insanity the imbecility remains stagnant or agitated; in the madness...

…Reason should take on anew the most difficult of all its tasks, namely, that of self-knowledge, and to institute a court of justice, by which reason may secure its rightful claims while dismissing all its...

I’ve often been criticised, but never critically wounded

get that”, we will forever be a society that thinks Beautiful Mind was a spy movie and every stranger is really a friend on Facebook.

The pleasure of criticizing takes away from us the pleasure of being moved by some very fine things.

Don’t be fool enough to think you can know a person’s character after a few moments of observation. You can’t. You have no idea where his life began or how his saga has unfolded thus...

[Capitalism assumed] that from the beginning all men are equal. If that were so everyone would be equipped with the same working power, the same education and, above all, the same economic assets … each...

I ran across an excerpt today (in English translation) of some dialogue/narration from the modern popular writer, Paulo Coelho in his book: Aleph.(Note: bracketed text is mine.)… ‘I spoke to three scholars,’ [the character says...

A critic must be knowledgeable in several fields, practices, and mediums. Brushing off art that they personally don’t understand, is not a critique.

It’s rather disconcerting to sit around a table in a critique of someone else’s work, only to realize that the antagonist in the story is none other than yourself, and no one present thinks you’re...

I welcome reviews from all readers. I take criticism well; but please . . . no comments on my author face!

Toutes les erreurs de la critique commises à mon égard, à mes débuts, furent qu’elle ne vit pas qu’il ne fallait rien définir, rien comprendre, rien limiter, rien préciser, parce que tout ce qui est...

I surround myself with books when I write, thus surrounding myself with writers… only they don’t critique me and then get up for coffee.

At first, one only recognizes particular instances to be worth of critique; critique appears synonymous with rejection, implying deficiency in the object. Over time, one discovers that everything warrants critique. This can produce cynicism: nothing...

Well, I’m not defining good and bad art, except, that art that appeals to me or repels me is good. Art that bores me is bad.

…writers are often the worst judges of what they have written.