Critics should never socialize with artists; it’s difficult enough to like their work in the first place. - Alexander Jablokov

I felt a surge of annoyance. The palace was a monstrosity. It had towers, with pennants snapping in the breeze. It had triumphal staircases. It had flying buttresses. It had colonnades. What it didn’t have was structure. It looked like an immense warehouse of architectural spare parts.

“Rye, beef, and mustard. There are some aesthetic verities that transcend reality. The field of gustatory ontology has been much neglected by philosophers.”
“So much the worse for ontology,” I said, settling down to lunch with as much grace as I could muster. I really was quite hungry.
“So much the worse for philosophers! All this Truth and Beauty stuff is fine, but it obscures the real issues. Rye bread! I try never to create a world in which it cannot be found. One must have an absolute aesthetic criterion to give an anchor to one’s life.”
There are worse ones, I suppose.

Ah, 'The Suffering Critic.' The work to gladden the heart of any artist.