Criticism - however valid or intellectually engaging - tends to get in the way of a writer who has anything personal to say. A tightrope walker may require practice, but if he starts a theory of equilibrium he will lose grace (and probably fall off).
J.R.R. Tolkien (2014). “The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien”, p.126, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
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