#criticism

In general, I would think that at present prose writers are much in advance of the poets. In the old days, I read more poetry than prose, but now it is in prose where you find things being put together well, where there is great ambition, and equal talent. Poets have gotten so careless, it is a disgrace. You can’t pick up a page. All the words slide off. ↗

— William H. Gass

#literary-criticism #living-writers #poetry #prose #equality

Is constructive criticism really constructive? Not really. You can't make a child better by pointing out what you think is wrong with him or her. Criticism either crushes spirit or elicits defensiveness. Constructive criticism is an interesting combination of words. "Construct" means "to build." "Criticism" means "to tear down" It creates defiance and anger as well. ↗

— H. Norman Wright

#anger

The aim of all commentary on art now should be to make works of art - and, by analogy, our own experience - more, rather than less, real to us. The function of criticism should be to show how it is what it is, even that it is what it is, rather than to show what it means. ↗

— Susan Sontag

#analogy #art #commentary #criticism #even

Too many Christians have a commitment of convenience. They'll stay faithful as long as it's safe and doesn't involve risk, rejection, or criticism. Instead of standing alone in the face of challenge or temptation, they check to see which way their friends are going. ↗

— Charles Stanley

#challenge #check #christians #commitment #convenience

It feels like the more I'm out there in the public eye, the more criticism I get. You need to have confidence - that's what it takes to walk out there and sing a song in front of a huge group of people. ↗

— Gwen Stefani

#criticism #eye #feels #front #get

I've got used to criticisms and, naturally, I try to make sure I don't listen to the more extreme ones because most of the people who have taken their right-wing extremist view of my life are people that I've never met. ↗

— Maurice Strong

#criticisms #extreme #extremist #got #i

Criticism in a time of war is essential to the maintenance of any kind of democratic government. ↗

— Robert Taft

#criticism #democratic #democratic government #essential #government

The United States is the wealthiest nation in the history of the world, yet its inhabitants are strikingly unhappy. Accordingly, we present to the rest of mankind, on a planet rife with suffering and tragedy, the spectacle of a clown civilization. Sustained on a clown diet rich in sugar and fat, we have developed a clown physiognomy. We dress like clowns. We move about a landscape filled with cartoon buildings in clownmobiles, absorbed in clownish activities. We fill our idle hours enjoying the canned antics of professional clowns... Death, when we acknowledge it, is just another pratfall on the boob tube. Bang! You're dead! ↗

— James Howard Kunstler

#clown #clowns #community #social-criticism #the-united-states

Self criticism must be my guide to action, and the first rule for its employment is that in itself it is not a virtue, only a procedure. ↗

— Kingsley Amis

#criticism #employment #first #guide #itself

Most criticism of advertising is written in ignorance of what actually happens inside these agencies. ↗

— Michael Schudson

#advertising #agencies #criticism #happens #ignorance