Ethan Canin Quotes

There's no end to the inventiveness of critics, I tell you. Because they can't write fiction, they put their impulse into their analysis of work.

Give a critic an inch, he'll write a play.

Writing criticism is to writing fiction and poetry as hugging the shore is to sailing in the open sea.

Asking a working writer what he thinks about critics is like asking a lamp-post what it feels about dogs.

Write how you want, the critic shall show the world you could have written better.

There are always people screeching and upset that I did this or didn't do that. Basically, they're upset that I didn't rewrite an earlier book they particularly liked.

I don't understand why people are going mad about the lyrics I write? Do they expect everyone to become Mirza Ghalib?

... if we can imagine the art of fiction come alive and standing in our midst, she would undoubtedly bid us to break her and bullyher, as well as honour and love her, for so her youth is renewed and her sovereignty assured.

A good novel is a good novel, pointe finale. And I think what I'm writing is exactly that.

Asking a critic to name his favorite book is like asking a butcher to name his favorite pig.

I've had trouble with criticism, I guess. It's hard to know what role criticism plays in either encouraging poets or in getting other people to read them.

You don't get many chances in life to make a movie, and if someone says they don't like it, I say, 'I do'. I've made records before, and if someone said it sucked, it bummed me out.

Every good poet includes a critic, but the reverse is not true.

You do not become a critic until it has been completely established to your own satisfaction that you cannot be a poet.

I never met anybody in my life who says, I want to be a critic. People want to be a fireman, poet, novelist.

I have spent a great deal of my time defending my work against those who see it as too complicated, too old in approach, too bleak to qualify as children's literature. This has been the bane of my life.

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.

I took it personal. I got slammed quite a bit.

Reviewers are usually people who would have been, poets, historians, biographer, if they could. They have tried their talents at one thing or another and have failed; therefore they turn critic.

Criticism pretty much follows anything anyone ever does. So, anytime anyone ever writes a song, plays a show, or does whatever they do, there's going to be a certain amount of criticism because that's kind of what happens.

The judgment, criticism, and rejection you face as an actor can be overwhelming.

I've liked Pete Gurney's writing always.

Once people write criticism about something - and even in 1967 I was far from alone - they're assuming it's art, and art is supposed to last.

When you pitch a half-baked idea it's so easy for someone to pick it apart and hate on it.

I think it's really hard to describe music without alienating somebody.