Manny Farber Quotes

“To write criticism that places itself beyond verification or challenge is to define criticism as an art, not a science, and to define that art in terms of art rather than scientifically. Exercised on its own terms, without reference to business or scholarship, such a practice defies the use of pull-quotes and advertising blurbs as much as term papers and dissertations; it usually becomes impossible, in fact, to appropiate or adapt it for any purpose other than its own. Refusing to reach for final conclusions about anything⁠—the ultimate aim of marketplace and university criticism alike⁠—it can only revel and luxuriate in its own activity, hoping at best merely to keep up with rather than master the art that it engages.”
― Jonathan Rosenbaum, Placing Movies: The Practice of Film Criticism