All that a critic, as critic, can give poets is the deadly encouragement that never ceases to remind them of how heavy their inheritance is.

Quote by Harold Bloom

Topics: Harold Bloom Quotes

Sometimes one succeeds, sometimes one fails.

Sometimes one succeeds, sometimes one fails.

The world does not get to be a better or a worse place; it just...

The world does not get to be a better or a worse place; it just...

I don't believe in myths of decline or myths of progress, even as regards the...

I don't believe in myths of decline or myths of progress, even as regards the...

Indeed the three prophecies about the death of individual art are, in their different ways,...

Indeed the three prophecies about the death of individual art are, in their different ways,...

What I think I have in common with the school of deconstruction is the mode...

What I think I have in common with the school of deconstruction is the mode...

In the finest critics one hears the full cry of the human. They tell one...

In the finest critics one hears the full cry of the human. They tell one...

But in the end, in the end one is alone. We are all of us...

But in the end, in the end one is alone. We are all of us...

Criticism in the universities, I'll have to admit, has entered a phase where I am...

Criticism in the universities, I'll have to admit, has entered a phase where I am...

I think Freud is about contamination, but I think that is something he learned from...

I think Freud is about contamination, but I think that is something he learned from...

Shakespeare is universal.

Shakespeare is universal.

I have never believed that the critic is the rival of the poet, but I...

I have never believed that the critic is the rival of the poet, but I...

I would say that there is no future for literary studies as such in the...

I would say that there is no future for literary studies as such in the...

What is supposed to be the very essence of Judaism - which is the notion...

What is supposed to be the very essence of Judaism - which is the notion...

What matters in literature in the end is surely the idiosyncratic, the individual, the flavor...

What matters in literature in the end is surely the idiosyncratic, the individual, the flavor...

Criticism starts - it has to start - with a real passion for reading. It...

Criticism starts - it has to start - with a real passion for reading. It...

No poem, not even Shakespeare or Milton or Chaucer, is ever strong enough to totally...

No poem, not even Shakespeare or Milton or Chaucer, is ever strong enough to totally...

Shakespeare is the true multicultural author. He exists in all languages. He is put on...

Shakespeare is the true multicultural author. He exists in all languages. He is put on...

In fact, it is Shakespeare who gives us the map of the mind. It is...

In fact, it is Shakespeare who gives us the map of the mind. It is...

What matters in literature in the end is surely the idiosyncratic, the individual, the flavor...

What matters in literature in the end is surely the idiosyncratic, the individual, the flavor...

I take it that a successful therapy is an oxymoron.

I take it that a successful therapy is an oxymoron.