But I honestly don't read critics. My dad reads absolutely everything ever written about me. He calls me up to read ecstatic reviews but I always insist that I can't hear them. If you give value to the good reviews you have to give value to the criticism.

By and large the critics and readers gave me an affirmed sense of my identity as a writer. You might know this within yourself but to have it affirmed by others is of utmost importance. Writing is after all a form of communication.

The '80s made up for all the abuse I took during the '70s. I outlived all my critics. By the time I retired everybody saw me as a venerable institution. Things do change.

My play Safe Sex was picked apart because critics thought it was untrue. It was a play in which no one had AIDS but the characters talked about how it was going to change their lives.

My second play The Birthday Party I wrote in 1958 - or 1957. It was totally destroyed by the critics of the day who called it an absolute load of rubbish.

I don't listen to what art critics say. I don't know anybody who needs a critic to find out what art is.

The New York art world readily proves people wrong. Just when folks say that things stink and flibbertigibbet critics wish the worst on us all because we're not pure enough good omens appear.

The amazing thing now is that most of those so-called critics who were telling me to find my own voice seem to have lost theirs.

I'm vulnerable to criticism. Any artist is because you work alone in your studio and until recently critics were the only way you'd get any feedback.