Charles Caleb Colton Quotes

But what is criticism? Criticism is purely destructive; anyone can destroy, but not everyone can build up.

A critic is a gong at a railroad crossing clanging loudly and vainly as the train goes by.

Criticism, though dignified from the earliest ages by the labours of men eminent for knowledge and sagacity, has not yet attained the certainty and stability of science.

If you pay attention to good critics, you have to listen to the bad. So you have to ignore them all really. You can't just cherry pick the glowing ones.

A critic is a necessary evil, and criticism is an evil necessity.

Criticism is like many other things, it drags along after what has already been said and doesn't get out of its rut.

The practice of "reviewing"... in general has nothing in common with the art of criticism.

Worship the spirit of criticism. If reduced to itself it is not an awakener of ideas or a stimulant to great things, but, without it, everything is fallible; it always has the last word.

The strength of criticism lies in the weakness of the thing criticized.

It's not the journalists; it's the critics that I can't understand. I've never understood what kind of a person would want to criticize someone else's work.

If the scripts are not good, I'll tell somebody, 'This isn't good.'

All criticism is constructive.

We criticize a man or a book most sharply when we sketch out their ideal.

There will always be critics. On one hand, criticism can be positive. On the other hand, criticism can be negative. But critics will always be watching the game. If you listen to everybody, you can go crazy. I have my own point of view, and I always try to keep it.

Ours is an age of criticism, to which everything must be subjected.

It's not usually that great of an idea to read lots of reviews of your movies, because even if somebody's saying nice things, there'll still be something in there that pushes the wrong button, and it's not really that helpful.

Criticism even should not be without its charms. When quite devoid of all amenities, it is no longer literary.

My mother didn't raise me to be a critic, but I seem to have become one anyway.

Criticism shouldn't be a performance that upstages the work it's talking about.

Criticism at its best is re-creative, not spirit-killing.

I don't like to be overly directing people either. I tell them what I want and I tell them when it's wrong. I tell them no, that's not what I want. I want it more like this or more like that. I'm pretty direct with everyone, and I treat everyone the same which might be good.

Criticism is a surreal state, like a good drug gone bad. When it's bad you wish it would stop, and when it's good, you can't get enough.

An important job of the critic is to savage what is mediocre or meretricious.

Criticism per se does not worry me. I've always solicited it as part of the design process.