There seems to be an assumption that if you're offended by movie brutality, you are somehow playing into the hands of the people who want censorship. But this would deny those of us who don't believe in censorship the use of the only counter-balance: the freedom of the press to say that there's anything conceivably damaging in these films - the freedom to analyze their implications. How can people go on talking about the dazzling brilliance of movies and not notice that the directors are sucking up to the thugs in the audience?

Vulgarity is not as destructive to an artist as snobbery.

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

In the arts, the critic is the only independent source of information. The rest is advertising.

This movie is a toupee made up to look like honest baldness.

McLuhanism and the media have broken the back of the book business; they've freed people from the shame of not reading. They've rationalized becoming stupid and watching television.

Great movies are rarely perfect movies.