Five great quotations about book critics

“A critic can only review the book he has read, not the one which the writer wrote.” – Mignon McLaughlin

“The good critic is he who narrates the adventures of his soul among masterpieces.” – Anatole France

“Criticism should not be querulous and wasting, all knife and root-puller, but guiding, instructive, inspiring.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Asking a working writer what he thinks about critics is like asking a lamppost how it feels about dogs.” – Christopher Hampton

“Any reviewer who expresses rage and loathing for a novel is preposterous. He or she is like a person who has put on full armor and attacked a hot fudge sundae.” – Kurt Vonnegut