140 Quotes by Pauline Kael

Movies that are consciously life-affirming are to be consciously avoided ...

The critical task is necessarily comparative, and younger people do not truly know what is new

What this generation was bred to at television's knees was not wisdom, but cynicism.

When a picture can't make it on its own, the producers pull in a 'controversial' message - the way a couple whose marriage is falling apart decide to have a baby.

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

Movies, far more than the traditional arts, are tied to big money. Without a few independent critics, there’s nothing between the public and the advertisers.

When I see those ads with the quote ‘You’ll have to see this picture twice,’ I know it’s the kind of picture I don’t want to see once.

For perhaps most Americans, TV is an apppliance, not to be used selectively but to be turned on – there’s always something to watch.

TV accustoms people to not expecting much.