Straw Critic/Quotes

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how it's done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves.
Brendan Behan

They builded a tower to shiver the sky and wrench the stars apart,
Till the Devil grunted behind the bricks: "It's striking, but is it Art?"
The stone was dropped at the quarry-side and the idle derrick swung,

While each man talked of the aims of Art, and each in an alien tongue.
Rudyard Kipling, "The Conundrum of the Workshops"

Raz: "If you can't say something nice, don't say something at all."

Jasper Rolls: "The young boy's protests, though heartfelt, quickly lapsed into simplistic and tedious platitudes. One and a half stars!"
Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain -- and most do.
—Dale Carnegie
And when I publish my review, your restaurant will be ruined. I love my job.
—Duckweed, Amphibia