A Quote by James Dickey

I don’t believe that a reviewer or a critic can really criticize well unless he can praise well.

James Dickey

Quote Topics

Believe Critic Criticize Praise Really Reviewer Unless Well

Quote Author

James Dickey
American - Novelist
February 2, 1923 - January 19, 1997

There's an enormous difference between being a critic and a reviewer. The reviewer reacts to the experience of that book.

Christopher Lehmann-Haupt

Unless a reviewer has the courage to give you unqualified praise, I say ignore the bastard.

John Steinbeck

The French believe that kids feel confident when they're able to do things for themselves, and do those things well. After children have learned to talk, adults don't praise them for saying just anything. They praise them for saying interesting things, and for speaking well.

Pamela Druckerman

Do not presume, well-housed, well-warmed, and well-fed, to criticize the poor

Herman Melville

There is a tendency among some businesses to criticize and belittle their competitors. This is a bad procedure. Praise them. Learn from them. There are times when you can co-operate with them to their advantage and to yours! Speak well of them and they will speak well of you. You can't destroy good ideas. Take advantage of them.

George Matthew Adams

Erasmus dramatizes a well-established political position: that of the fool who claims license to criticize all and sundry without reprisal, since his madness defines him as not fully a person and therefore not a political being with political desires and ambitions. The Praise of Folly, therefore sketches the possibility of a position for the critic of the scene of political rivalry, a position not simply impartial between the rivals but also, by self-definition, off the stage of rivalry altogether.

J. M. Coetzee

If they want to criticize me, I don't care; I don't mind. But they must criticize me fairly. Usually, the criticism is not fair. Or the praise, even the praise sometimes is not fair.

Bhumibol Adulyadej

“Let is Roll” is like - well, it was like me thinking of a human being in its purest form. That form being a baby where there's nothing there - well, unless I guess you believe that something comes along attached. It depends on what you believe.

Ladyhawke

I have said countless times that unless you are delivering a product and service that is really needed and unless you are doing it really well, you don't stick around for 80 years.

Ashley Judd

What I think of as a mistake might be something that does really well at the box office, so I'm my own harshest critic - as we all are, really.

Cate Blanchett

I wouldn't call myself a 'literary critic,' just a book reviewer.

Neel Mukherjee

You can't really praise somebody's work and then criticize the process.

Lucinda Williams

I think I can play really well on grass when my serve is going well, when I really play aggressive, when I believe in it, then I think I can play well.