Allowing for exceptions, there is still one basic difference between the traditional arts and the mass-media arts: in the traditional arts, the artist grows; in a mass medium, the artist decays profitably.

Really, it's not people who don't understand us who drive us nuts—it's when those who shouldn't, do.

The problem with a popular art form is that those who want something more are in a hopeless minority compared with the millions who are always seeing it for the first time, or for the reassurance and gratification of seeing the conventions fulfilled again.

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.

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

There is something spurious about the very term 'a movie made for TV,' because what you make for TV is a TV program.

a steady diet of mass culture is a form of deprivation.