Edward Abbey Quotes About Critics

Quotes about: Critics

• Readers, not critics, are the people who determine a book's eventual fate.

  Edward Abbey

  Book, Fate, People

  Edward Abbey (2006). “Postcards from Ed: Dispatches and Salvos from an American Iconoclast”

• The moral duty of the free writer is to begin his work at home: to be a critic of his own community, his own country, his own government, his own culture. The more freedom the writer possesses, the greater the moral obligation to play the role of critic.

  Edward Abbey

  Country, Home, Government

  Edward Abbey (1996). “The Serpents of Paradise: A Reader”, p.373, Macmillan

• Why the critics, like a flock of ducks, always move in perfect unison: Their authority with the public depends upon an appearance of unanimous agreement. One dissenting voice would shatter the whole fragile structure.

  Edward Abbey

  Moving, Agreement, Voice

  Edward Abbey (2015). “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”, p.36, RosettaBooks

• Literary critics, like a herd of cows or a school of fish, always face in the same direction, obeying that love for unity that every critic requires.

  Edward Abbey

  School, Unity, Cows

  Edward Abbey (2015). “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”, p.30, RosettaBooks

• The critics say that Shostakovich's Fourth Symphony has no form. They are wrong; it has the form of Shostakovich's Fourth Symphony.

  Edward Abbey

  Symphony, Shostakovich, Form

  Edward Abbey (2015). “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”, p.40, RosettaBooks

• Any hack can safely rail away at foreign powers beyond the sea; but a good writer is a critic of the society he lives in.

  Edward Abbey

  Sea, Critics, Rail

  Edward Abbey (2015). “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”, p.30, RosettaBooks

• Death is every man's final critic. To die well you must live bravely.

  Edward Abbey

  Men, Finals, Critics

  Edward Abbey (2015). “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”, p.28, RosettaBooks

• Critics are like ticks on a dog or tits on a motor: ornamental but dysfunctional.

  Edward Abbey

  Dog, Tick, Critics

  Edward Abbey (2015). “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”, p.34, RosettaBooks

• A critic is to an author as a fungus to an oak.

  Edward Abbey

  Fungi, Critics, Oaks

  Edward Abbey (2015). “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”, p.34, RosettaBooks

• The sneakiest form of literary subtlety, in a corrupt society, is to speak the plain truth. The critics will not understand you; the public will not believe you; your fellow writers will shake their heads. Laughter, praise, honors, money, and the love of beautiful girls will be your only reward.

  Edward Abbey

  Beautiful, Girl, Laughter

  Edward Abbey (2015). “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”, p.34, RosettaBooks

• John Updike: our greatest suburban chic-boutique man of letters. A smug and fatal complacency has stunted his growth beyond hope of surgical repair. Not enough passion in his collected works to generate steam in a beer can. Nevertheless, he is considered by some critics to be America's finest *living* author: Hold a chilled mirror to his lips and you will see, presently, a fine and dewy moisture condensing -- like a faery breath! -- upon the glass.

  Edward Abbey

  Passion, Beer, Men

  Edward Abbey (2015). “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”, p.35, RosettaBooks

• Edmund Wilson was our greatest American literary critic because he was more than a literary critic: He was a fearless, even radical judge of the society he lived in. (See, for example, _A Piece of My Mind_; _The Cold War and the Income Tax_; the introduction to _Patriotic Gore_.) Our conventional critics cannot forgive him for those scandalous lapses in good taste.

  Edward Abbey

  War, Patriotic, Judging

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