#criticism

Today is such a time, when the project of interpretation is largely reactionary, stifling. Like the fumes of the automobile and of heavy industry which befoul the urban atmosphere, the effusion of interpretations of art today poisons our sensibilities. In a culture whose already classical dilemma is the hypertrophy of the intellect at the expense of energy and sensual capability, interpretation is the revenge of the intellect upon art. Even more. It is the revenge of the intellect upon the world. To interpret is to impoverish, to deplete the world - in order to set up a shadow world of 'meanings.' It is to turn the world into this world. ('This world'! As if there were any other.) The world, our world, is depleted, impoverished enough. Away with all duplicates of it, until we again experience more immediately what we have. ↗

— Susan Sontag

#interpretation #art

Association with my pupils has kept me young in my work. Criticism of their work has kept my own point of view clear. ↗

— William Merritt Chase

#clear #criticism #kept #me #my own

The use of criticism, in periodical writing, is to sift, not to stamp a work. ↗

— Margaret Fuller

#periodical #sift #stamp #use #work

Criticism is a misconception: we must read not to understand others but to understand ourselves. ↗

— Emile M. Cioran

#misconception #must #others #ourselves #read

Be kind and considerate with your criticism... It's just as hard to write a bad book as it is to write a good book. ↗

— Malcolm Cowley

#be kind #book #considerate #criticism #good

Spanking and verbal criticism have become, to many parents, more important tools of child rearing than approval. ↗

— Phil Donahue

#become #child #criticism #important #important tools

Most people would have given up when faced with all the criticism I've received over the years. ↗

— Albert Ellis

#faced #given #i #most #over

So, two cheers for Democracy: one because it admits variety and two because it permits criticism. ↗

— E. M. Forster

#cheers #criticism #democracy #permits #two

The fact that Obama is getting criticism from the left and the right might reflect his understanding of the underlying political dynamics. ↗

— Ron Fournier

#dynamics #fact #getting #his #left

Graham Greene, as I understand it, was quite outspoken in his criticism of American foreign policy. ↗

— Brendan Fraser

#american foreign policy #criticism #foreign #foreign policy #graham