“A critic should judge a writer only through an idea of the writer's success or failure in the road which the writer has set out for himself.”

Stating that criticism should measure a writer against chosen aims · Introduction to Giants and Dwarves, 1946

• Art
• Truth

“To ask Norma Keating to be anything except Norma Keating would be ridiculous.”

Affirming that an artist must be judged as an individual · Introduction to Giants and Dwarves, 1946

• Art
• Identity

“Great creators always have a few weaknesses in their main trends, and one of the attributes of greatness lies in its ability to overcome its own imperfections.”

Locating greatness in the struggle beyond artistic limitation · Introduction to Giants and Dwarves, 1946

• Art
• Hope

“It is often healthy, relieving and searching to write a vicious satire, diatribe or philippic, despite the fact that one may be partly wrong.”

Defending fierce satire as a useful form of inquiry · Introduction to Giants and Dwarves, 1946

• Art
• Truth

“Frequently she wonders whether good and bad, themselves, are not self-important labels for insecurity, based on over-quick and hard personal judgements and preferences.”

Questioning rigid moral labels and hurried judgement · Introduction to Giants and Dwarves, 1946

• Faith
• Truth

“Her religion is a complete and unsparing tolerance.”

Elevating tolerance into a complete moral vision · Introduction to Giants and Dwarves, 1946

• Faith
• Truth

“If the above quotation is true, why waste so much time and attention upon this futile mediocrity?”

Questioning the obsession of critics with work they deem forgettable · Correspondence, A Reply to A. C. H., Poetry, 1919

• Art
• Fame

“Elaborate sarcasm and much attention are not apt to be symbols of indifferent disgust.”

Noting that energetic contempt is rarely genuine indifference · Correspondence, A Reply to A. C. H., Poetry, 1919

• Art
• Truth

“If one really believes that something is negligible and digging its own grave one becomes genuinely indifferent toward it.”

Arguing that sustained attack often betrays hidden concern · Correspondence, A Reply to A. C. H., Poetry, 1919

• Fame
• Truth

“She leaves something to the imagination of her reader and does not insult his intelligence.”

Praising suggestiveness and respect for the reader · Correspondence, A Reply to A. C. H., Poetry, 1919

• Art
• Poetry

“They allow their prejudices to insist that a thing is inevitably inferior if it doesn't contain elements which they personally care most for.”

Exposing personal preference disguised as objective judgement · Correspondence, A Reply to A. C. H., Poetry, 1919

• Art
• Truth

“They rarely ever judge a thing merely on the ground of whether it has achieved that which it obviously set out to achieve.”

Calling for criticism based on a work's own intentions · Correspondence, A Reply to A. C. H., Poetry, 1919

• Art
• Truth

“Critics of poetry never seem to be able to keep things in their place, and always demand that a locomotive contain the qualities of a flower-garden, or vice versa.”

Mocking criticism that judges a work by aims it never possessed · Correspondence, A Reply to A. C. H., Poetry, 1919

• Art
• Poetry

“Why continually shout the obvious in an attempt to belittle any general form of expression?”

Challenging criticism that mistakes commonplace faults for decisive arguments · Correspondence, A Reply to A. C. H., Poetry, 1919

• Art
• Truth

“The greater part of present-day rhymed verse is devoid of escaping freshness and vitality.”

Arguing that conventional form offers no guarantee of living poetry · Correspondence, A Reply to A. C. H., Poetry, 1919

• Art
• Poetry

“The rhythmical pattern of most free verse written today lacks cohesion and fluidity.”

Offering a candid criticism while defending the form itself · Correspondence, A Reply to A. C. H., Poetry, 1919

• Music
• Poetry

“Why single out free verse as the lone target in a general situation which has always obtained throughout the history of art and literature?”

Defending free verse against standards not equally applied elsewhere · Correspondence, A Reply to A. C. H., Poetry, 1919

• Art
• Poetry

“Doesn't the situation always shape itself into a few men rising above the level of insincerity and inability?”

Observing that lasting art is usually made by a small minority · Correspondence, A Reply to A. C. H., Poetry, 1919

• Art
• Truth

“Are the majority of examples of any art-form existing today, from cubism in painting to free verse in poetry, worthy of the inherent possibilities which that art-form contains?”

Separating an art form's potential from the average quality of its practitioners · Correspondence, A Reply to A. C. H., Poetry, 1919

• Art
• Poetry

“Perhaps both of us make the best of an inevitable situation.”

A wry recognition that people adapt to the lives available to them · Letter to Burton Rascoe, New York Tribune, 1922

• Hope
• Truth

“Among the best of these latter people I have found a genuineness, an unassuming candor, a rough sense of humor, and an inquisitive intelligence.”

Praising unpretentious curiosity and honest human warmth · Letter to Burton Rascoe, New York Tribune, 1922

• Friendship
• Truth

“My best friends have been nearly always stenographers, thieves, sailors, chauffeurs, shop-girls, lawyers, manicurists and humble students.”

Valuing companionship beyond fashionable literary society · Letter to Burton Rascoe, New York Tribune, 1922

• Friendship
• Society

“The ultra-conservative critics have ignored me, but that is a badge of honor that I wear with becoming grace.”

Turning critical neglect into a mark of artistic distinction · Letter to Burton Rascoe, New York Tribune, 1922

• Art
• Fame

“Bitterness, cruelty, hatred, malicious discernment—are they always to be dismissed as private grudges at untoward fate?”

Questioning easy psychological dismissals of dark artistic vision · Letter to the editor, Poetry, April 1925

• Art
• Despair
• Truth