Penners and Inkers

Journalists are people who take in other people's washing and then sell it.
- Marjorie Barnard and Flora Eldershaw, Australian writing team

He has occasional flashes of silence that make his conversation perfectly delightful.
- British clergyman Sydney Smith on Thomas Babington Macaulay

I do not hate the critics. I have nothing but compassion for them. How can I hate the crippled, the mentally deficient and the dead?
- Albert Finney, British actor

God created the poet, then took a handful of the rubbish left over and made the critics
- T.J.Thomas

Dear Randolph, utterly unspoilt by failure.
- Noel Coward on Winston's son, writer Randolph Churchill

The triumph of sugar over diabetes.
- American drama critic George Jean Nathan on the works of British writer J.M Barrie

I would praise Joad's new book, but modesty forbids.
- Bertrand Russel on fellow British philosopher C.E.M. Joad

Who can define him? His style is chaos illuminated by flashes of lightning. As a writer he has mastered everything except language; as a novelist he can do everything except tell a story. As an artist he is everything except articulate.
- Oscar Wilde, Irish playwright and wit on British novelist George Meredith

Time is the only critic without ambition
- John Steinbeck, American writer

This film wasn't released. It escaped.
- James Caan, American actor

It is only an auctioneer who can equally and impartially admire all schools of art.
- Oscar Wilde, Irish playwright and wit.