My idea is always to reach my generation. The wise writer writes for the youth of his own generation, the critics of the next, and the schoolmasters of ever afterward.

These critics with the illusions they’ve created about artists – it’s like idol worship. They only like people when they’re on their way up… I cannot be on the way up again.

A true artist is expected to be all that is noble-minded, and this is not altogether a mistake; on the other hand, however, in what a mean way are critics allowed to pounce upon us.

My mother and my father have been married 50 years, and he’s just started to understand that something’s wrong with the system. He accepted the whole thing, you see. Yet this industrious kind of engagement didn’t bring him the success, according to American terms, that he wanted. I was probably affected by this very much. In fact, I know I was.

From one generation to the next, The Beatles will remain the most important rock band of all time.

The women of my generation and my daughter’s generation, they were very active in moving along the social change that would result in equal citizenship stature for men and women.

I think sometimes the critics want me to beat people down, and that’s not in me. I want to lift people up.

An author ought to write for the youth of his own generation, the critics of the next, and the schoolmaster of ever afterwards.

It’s easy to become very self-critical when you’re an actor. Then you get critiqued by the critics. Whether you agree with them or not, people are passing judgment on you.

Writers are lampposts and critics are dogs. Ask lampposts what they think about dogs. Does the dog hurt the lamppost?

A lot of critics object to what I do, but I got into comedy to make people laugh, and I’ve always worked hard.

If you can’t tolerate critics, don’t do anything new or interesting.

Contrary to the claims of some of my critics and some of the editorial pages, I am an ardent believer in the free market.

If the critics are right that I’ve made all my decisions based on polls, then I must not be very good at reading them.

Everybody is going to have their critics. It’s easy to get discouraged in life.

We have to understand what the older generation has dealt to us, what mess they have created that we have to clean up and live with.

It is healthier, in any case, to write for the adults one’s children will become than for the children one’s ‚mature‘ critics often are.

I now have two different audiences. There’s the one that has been watching my action films for 20 years, and the American family audience. American jokes, less fighting.

We are not trying to entertain the critics. I’ll take my chances with the public.

I don’t focus on the critics. Everyone who is making any difference in any field has critics. As long as I feel like I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing, then I don’t worry about it.

You pick up some fans and a handful of haters along the way.

If my critics saw me walking over the Thames they would say it was because I couldn’t swim.

Individual science fiction stories may seem as trivial as ever to the blinder critics and philosophers of today – but the core of science fiction, its essence has become crucial to our salvation if we are to be saved at all.

People today are still living off the table scraps of the sixties. They are still being passed around – the music and the ideas.

Of course, there are those critics – New York critics as a rule – who say, ‚Well, Maya Angelou has a new book out and of course it’s good but then she’s a natural writer.‘ Those are the ones I want to grab by the throat and wrestle to the floor because it takes me forever to get it to sing. I work at the language.