Reviewers Quotes - Page 4

• Who shall dispute what the Reviewers say? Their word's sufficient; and to ask a reason, In such a state as theirs, is downright treason.

  Charles Churchill

  Criticism, Reason, Disputes

  Charles Churchill, James L. Hannay (1866). “Poetical Works: With a Memoir by James L. Hannay and Copious Notes by W. Tooke”, p.66

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• 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

  Writing, Editors, Rejection

  Kurt Vonnegut (1982). “Palm Sunday: An Autobiographical Collage”, Dell Books

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• I think that curiosity happened on these reviews where I was just a guest of the reviewer, because it introduced me to new cuisines and to the idea of cooking as a mechanism for studying other cultures and understanding other parts of the world.

  Ted Allen

  Thinking, Ideas, Other Cultures

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• Some movie I was in, I forget which one, some awful little movie, a reviewer said, What is Jessica Walter doing in this movie? And I said, Hello? Trying to make a living?

  Jessica Walter

  Trying, Littles, Awful

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• Some of the reviewers wanted less. Some wanted lots more. Some wanted lots more of something else. But these strips are exactly what they are.

  Art Spiegelman

  Wanted

  "Art Spiegelman: The Sky Is Falling". Interview with Steven Heller, www.aiga.org. October 01, 2004.

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• It is always dishonest for a reviewer to review the author instead of the author's book.

  Edward Abbey

  Book, Reviews

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

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

  James Dickey

  Believe, Praise, Criticize

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• In fact, some reviewers have said that as they got into the story they forgot that the protagonist is a black woman. They were moved by the story - by the people as a whole - and not by the little things.

  Christopher Darden

  People, Black, Stories

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• The worst disgrace that can befall a producer is an unkind notice from a New York reviewer. When this happens, the producer becomes a pariah in Hollywood. He is shunned by his friends, thrown into bankruptcy, and like a Japanese electing hara-kiri, he commits suttee.

  S. J. Perelman

  New York, Hollywood, Pariahs

  "Strictly from Hunger". "The Most of S. J. Perelman", p. 47, 1992.

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• I didn't expect the book to sell in the first place. I was hoping for a quick and merciful death at the hands of reviewers but at the same time I sort of hoped that maybe someone would like it enough to give me encouragement. Public encouragement. I hoped for a little, as I said, but I got rather a whole lot, and in some ways this was just about as frightening as the quick, merciful death I'd expected.

  Harper Lee

  Encouragement, Book, Hands

  "Harper Lee breaks silence - just - for Mockingbird anniversary" by Alison Flood, www.theguardian.com. June 28, 2010.

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• I have been extremely lucky with reviewers and critics throughout my career.

  Kate Smith

  Careers, Lucky, Critics

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• I thought I was attractive when I shot 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding.' Studio executives and movie reviewers let me know I had a confidence in my looks that was not shared by them.

  Nia Vardalos

  Wedding, Greek, Looks

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• And it does no harm to repeat, as often as you can, 'Without me the literary industry would not exist: the publishers, the agents, the sub-agents, the sub-sub-agents, the accountants, the libel lawyers, the departments of literature, the professors, the theses, the books of criticism, the reviewers, the book pages- all this vast and proliferating edifice is because of this small, patronized, put-down and underpaid person.'

  Doris Lessing

  Book, Writing, Criticism

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• I've been reading reviews of my stories for twenty-five years, and can't remember a single useful point in any of them, or the slightest good advice. The only reviewer who ever made an impression on me was Skabichevsky, who prophesied that I would die drunk in the bottom of a ditch.

  Anton Chekhov

  Reading, Years, Editors

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• Book reviewers are little old ladies of both sexes.

  John O'Hara

  Sex, Book, Writing

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• Professional reviewers read so many bad books in the course of duty that they get an unhealthy craving for arresting phrases.

  Evelyn Waugh

  Book, Phrases, Literature

  Evelyn Waugh (1983). “The Essays, Articles and Reviews of Evelyn Waugh”, Methuen

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• What's happening to movie critics is no different from what has been meted out to book, dance, theater, and fine-arts reviewers and reporters in the cultural deforestation that has driven refugees into the diffuse clatter of the Internet and Twitter, where some adapt and thrive - such as Roger Ebert - while others disappear without a twinkle.

  James Wolcott

  Inspirational, Dance, Art

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• Too often do reviewers remind us of the mob of Astrologers, Chaldeans, and Soothsayers gathered before 'the writing on the wall' and unable to read the characters or make known the interpretation.

  Charlotte Bronte

  Wall, Character, Writing

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• (on A History of Western Philosophy) I was sometimes accused by reviewers of writing not a true history but a biased account of the events that I arbitrarily chose to write of. But to my mind, a man without a bias cannot write interesting history - if, indeed, such man exists.

  Bertrand Russell

  Philosophy, Writing, Men

  Bertrand Russell (2014). “The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell”, p.465, Routledge

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• Satire is tragedy plus time. You give it enough time, the public, the reviewers will allow you to satirize it. Which is rather ridiculous, when you think about it.

  Lenny Bruce

  Time, Sarcasm, Thinking

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• Peer reviewers go for orthodoxy ... Many of the great 19th-century discoveries were made by men who had independent wealth-Charles Darwin is the prototype. They trusted themselves.

  James Black

  Creativity, Independent, Science

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• Reviewers, with some rare exceptions, are a most stupid and malignant race. As a bankrupt thief turns thief-taker in despair, so an unsuccessful author turns critic.

  Percy Bysshe Shelley

  Stupid, Race, Despair

  Percy Bysshe Shelley (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley (Illustrated)”, p.946, Delphi Classics

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• Writing prejudicial, off-putting reviews is a precise exercise in applied black magic. The reviewer can draw free-floating disagreeable associations to a book by implying that the book is completely unimportant without saying exactly why, and carefully avoiding any clear images that could capture the reader's full attention.

  William S. Burroughs

  Book, Writing, Exercise

  "Personal Quotes/ Biography". www.imdb.com.

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• Under true peer-review...a panel of reviewers must accept a study before it can be published in a scientific journal. If the reviewers have objections the author must answer them or change the article to take reviewers' objections into account. Under the IPCC review process, the authors are at liberty to ignore criticisms.

  Richard Lindzen

  Liberty, Criticism, Answers

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• The reviewer always has hold of the wrong horror.

  Flannery O'Connor

  Editors, Horror, Critics

  Flannery O'Connor (1988). “The Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O'Connor”, p.90, Macmillan

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