Karl Kraus Quotes

You know, you get a bad review as a writer, you remember it for 10 years. You get a hundred good reviews, you forget them all. You say hello to a hundred people in the city and it doesn't mean anything to you. One racist comment passes by, and it sticks with you a decade.

It's hard sometimes to not want to know what people are saying behind your back and to ignore certain things that are being written.

It's sometimes the random people that say things that aren't so nice, but that's okay.

For some reason if we hear 100 praises and one criticism, we focus on that one hurtful thing.

You can get a million comments about how beautiful you look and how awesome you are, but the one comment that says they hate you and you're ugly is the one that sticks.

It doesn't feel good when you're put down, and especially for no uncertain reason.

I gave up writing blurbs because you make one friend and 200 enemies.

The unflattering reviews are painful for short periods of time; the badly written ones are deeply, deeply insulting. That reviewer took no time to really read the book.

If some part of the review is true, those are the ones that sting.

We get put down a lot in this industry, and I think when you're really young and you're not used to it, it really hurts you.

I respect Mark Hughes and what he's done for me but I heard some things when he was talking about me and they were not good things.

If somebody tells you to lose weight, it is like a punch in the face.

I know people will criticise when you play bad; that is part of this job, and I am fine with that. That is not a problem. The problem is the insults. That is what hurts the most.

I don't mind positive criticism, but when it is negative and personal, it is quite hard.

I've come to realize that you're going to get criticized no matter what. Somebody will always hate what you write, especially if you write humor for a fairly broad audience. Somebody will always find it not funny and declare you're not funny anymore. And sometimes people are just crazy.

When someone writes a really nasty piece about me. I think they're generally untrue because I think I'm a nice person.

If certain Critics were as clearsighted as they are malignant, how great would be the benefit to be derived from their writings!

I'd like to be clear that a number of people find me intolerable, and they don't hesitate to say so - which they and I cherish.

If you write (or paint or dance or sculpt or sing, I suppose), someone will try to make you feel lousy about it, that's all.

Critics don't bother me because if I do badly, I know I'm bad before they even write it. And if I'm good, I know I'm good. I know best about myself, so a critic doesn't anger me.

The critics have been writing me off for 20 years. That's nothing new. As far as I know I still have plenty of fans and sell lots of records. Do I care what critics say about me? No, and I don't read reviews.

It was really hurtful to me. I get so much mail from young girls who say, 'I look up to you, you're not as skinny as everyone else, I think you're beautiful.' So when they say that my body is 'ugly' and 'disgusting,' what does that make those girls feel like?

If you don't like my book, write your own.

Most writers in the course of their careers become thick-skinned and learn to accept vituperation, which in any other profession would be unimaginably offensive, as a healthy counterpoise to unintelligent praise.

Pay no attention to the criticism of men who have never themselves written a notable work.