140 Quotes by Pauline Kael

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

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

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.

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.

Irresponsibility is part of the pleasure of all art; it is the part the schools cannot recognize.

Just about the best Hollywood musical of all time.

Brando represented a reaction against the postwar mania for security. As a protagonist, the Brando of the early 50's had no code, only his instincts. He was a development from the gangster and the outlaw.

The words ""Kiss Kiss Bang Bang"" which I saw on an Italian movie poster, are perhaps the briefest statement imaginable of the basic appeal of movies

The words ''Kiss Kiss Bang Bang,'' which I saw on an Italian movie poster, are perhaps the briefest statement imaginable of the basic appeal of movies. This appeal is what attracts us, and ultimately what makes us despair when we begin to understand how seldom movies are more than this.