Pauline Kael Quotes

I see little of more importance to the future of our country and of civilization than full recognition of the place of the artist. If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him.

– Pauline Kael

A mistake in judgment isn’t fatal, but too much anxiety about judgment is.

– Pauline Kael

Where there is a will, there is a way. If there is a chance in a million that you can do something, anything, to keep what you want from ending, do it. Pry the door open or, if need be, wedge your foot in that door and keep it open.

– Pauline Kael

In the arts, the critic is the only independent source of information. The rest is advertising.

– Pauline Kael

The critic is the only independent source of information. The rest is advertising.

– Pauline Kael

Citizen Kane is perhaps the one American talking picture that seems as fresh now as the day it opened. It may seem even fresher.

– Pauline Kael

A book might be written on the injustice of the just.

– Pauline Kael

This movie is a toupee made up to look like honest baldness.

– Pauline Kael

The first prerogative of an artist in any medium is to make a fool of himself.

– Pauline Kael

Movies are so rarely great art that if we cannot appreciate great trash we have very little reason to be interested in them.

– Pauline Kael

One of the surest signs of the Philistine is his reverence for the superior tastes of those who put him down.

– Pauline Kael

It seems likely that many of the young who don’t wait for others to call them artists, but simply announce that they are, don’t have the patience to make art.

– Pauline Kael

Trash has given us an appetite for art.

– Pauline Kael

Kevin Costner has feathers in his hair and feathers in his head. The Indians should have called him ‘Plays with Camera.’

– Pauline Kael