Robert Christgau

“The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is a canonizing institution. Jann Wenner has worked to make Rolling Stone the keeper of the canon since 1970. I don't like that, because he uses institutional power and he uses economic power to enforce those standards.”

“You can only adjust to so much history in your life. I still have trouble texting.”

“If you're intimate with a mind as powerful as that of Ellen Willis, it takes you a long time to separate yourself from her ideas. She had an extremely powerful mind.”

“Anyway, you know, when Richard Meltzer said rock and roll died in '68, what he means is Jefferson Airplane were no longer his buddies, that's what he really means. He means it in a political way: that was when the artists and the audience found themselves on different levels.”

“I'm not that Internet-savvy. I get by. But that's all. I don't have serious skills or any other stuff.”

“Every once in a while there's a day or two when I say, 'Gee, electric guitars, what an ugly sound.' But I'm a very enthusiastic person. For sure I'm an excitable, fun-loving person. I enjoy life.”

“I was never really a bohemian. I was a sloppy guy who liked cheap apartments and the arts, and who was very left-wing politically as the 60's progressed, though it took me a little while.”

“The Village Voice gave me an outlet. They encouraged writers to publish idiosyncratic, intellectually ambitious journalism in voices that ranged from demonic to highfalutin. And they paid me well once the magazine was unionized. Getting paid is motivational.”

“One meaningful distinction between high and popular culture, is that there's way more good popular culture - because its standards of quality are more forgiving, because sobriety isn't its default mode, because there's so damn much of it.”

“As a power listener who listens to music between 10 and 14 hours a day and who always has his earphones and MP3 player with him, convenience really means a lot to me.”

“I'm not a musician, I can't read music, but I came from a family of music fans. Not mad music fans, but people who like music. Both of my parents can play the piano. They were very good dancers, which I am not.”

“If rock criticism is to be a political calling, which has always been my angle, that's obviously not because it's a fountainhead of protest songs.”

“I don't believe in pulling punches or being judicious, as the standard in literary criticism or academic musicology.”

“Bonnie Raitt and Lynyrd Skynyrd were two people I went on the road with.”

“I don't like most world music because you need to know what the words are to really understand it.”

“One of the many things I hate about Donald Trump is that he embodies a kind of very popular popular culture that, as near as I'm able to perceive and stomach, is of no quality whatsoever.”

“I review albums - really positive reviews - I know I'll never hear again, 'cause I'm just not going to have the time.”

“You know, criticism began as the province of amateurs, of wealthy men who liked the arts.”

“The idea with a collection is sort of to begin with a kind of bang.”

“I think I've had a certain amount of success at making phrases. I'm a good writer. But obviously, I'm incredibly flattered and pleased when people remember things that I say.”