“ 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… Pauline Kael
“ Citizen Kane is perhaps the one American talking picture that seems as fresh now as the day it opened. It may seem even fresher. Pauline Kael
“ 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. Pauline Kael
“ One of the surest signs of the Philistine is his reverence for the superior tastes of those who put him down. Pauline Kael
“ Movies are so rarely great art that if we cannot appreciate great trash we have very little reason to be interested in them. Pauline Kael
“ The worst thing about movie-making is that it's like life: nobody can go back to correct the mistakes. Pauline Kael
“ Really, it's not people who don't understand us who drive us nuts—it's when those who shouldn't, . Pauline Kael
“ A good movie can take you out of your dull funk and the hopelessness that so often goes with slipping into a theatre; a good movie can make you feel alive again, in contact, not just lost in another c… Pauline Kael
“ An artist must either give up art or develop. There are, of course, two ways of giving up: stopping altogether or taking the familiar Hollywood course - making tricks out of what was once done for lov… Pauline Kael
“ Where there is a will, there is a way. If there is a chance in a million that you can do something, anything, to keep what you want from ending, do it. Pry the door open or, if need be, wedge your foo… Pauline Kael
“ When the bespangled Miss Charisse wraps her phenomenal legs around [Fred] Astaire, she can be forgiven everything—even the fact that she reads her lines as if she learned them phonetically. Pauline Kael
“ Part of growing up is developing a bullshit detector, and kids usually do a pretty fair job of wising each other up. Pauline Kael
