John Podhoretz Quotes

It's hard for me to measure them, or to assess my books because I'm so close to them.

Normally I don't watch myself, because I'm not very objective.

I can't judge my own stuff. That's for others. But those are the three things that I admire.

I often don't read reviews.

I cannot watch my performance as an audience because whenever I watch anything that I am a part of, I watch critically.

It's very difficult for me to evaluate my own stuff.

We prefer ourselves to others, only because we a have more intimate consciousness and confirmed opinion of our own claims and merits than of any other person's.

I am the worst judge of my books.

Sometimes it's difficult directing yourself on film because you can't quite separate yourself from the subject.

I would be far more critical than any reviewer could be of my own work. So I simply don't read them.

I don't like to rate myself; others can do that.

Considering I'm a young president, I wouldn't like to make an evaluation of myself. It's not my job to do that.

But you know, really, if you think about it Roger and I and all critics really have one absolute essential part of our credentials and that is that you believe that that is actually what we think.

There's nothing wrong with giving yourself a pat on the back. If you can't do that, you can't be objective about your work. You can't be conceited or cocky either, but you can't be too modest either.

Twyla Tharp put it together from the material I wrote and recorded over my whole career. I thought it was pretty good, but how objective could I be?

Great writers probably shouldn't be ranked, at least not by me.

I've always been very honest about what's good and bad in my writing. That honesty might have made me sound arrogant sometimes, when I was talking about work I thought was good.

It's hard to judge literary merit.

I don't like to talk about my work. People should see my work and form their opinion based on that, not because of something I said.

I always and strictly tell Nintendo employees never to use the term 'success' to describe our own performance.

I don't know if I can call myself underrated. Maybe some people may overrate me. Who knows?

I don't read reviews anymore.

My dear Watson," said [Sherlock Holmes], "I cannot agree with those who rank modesty among the virtues. To the logician all things should be seen exactly as they are, and to underestimate one's self is as much a departure from truth as to exaggerate one's own powers.

I'm not a critic so much of my own writing. People must make up their own minds over that.

There is nothing that deceives us more than our own judgment when used to give an opinion on our own works. It is sound in judging the work of our enemies but not that of our friends, for hate and love are two of the most powerfully motivating factors found among living things.