Robert Gottlieb
Robert Gottlieb

The cows in Stella Gibbons's immortal 'Cold Comfort Farm' are named Graceless, Aimless, Feckless and Pointless, and that more or less is the verdict on 'Ocean's Kingdom,' the wildly hyped and wildly uninteresting collaboration between Peter Martins and Paul McCartney.

Robert Gottlieb
Robert Gottlieb

Who would have thought that a tap-dancing penguin would outpoint James Bond at the box office? And deserve to? Not that there's anything wrong with 'Casino Royale.' But 'Happy Feet' - written and directed by George Miller - is a complete charmer, even if, in the way of most family fare, it can't resist straying into the Inspirational.

Robert Gottlieb
Robert Gottlieb

Controversy sells books.

Robert Gottlieb
Robert Gottlieb

It's always fascinating - and sometimes a little disquieting - when two first-rate critics violently disagree.

Robert Gottlieb
Robert Gottlieb

Without a Prospero-Caliban relationship to balance the Prospero-Ariel one, 'The Tempest' loses much of its resonance.

Robert Gottlieb
Robert Gottlieb

'Beloved Renegade' is a meditation on Walt Whitman, on tenderness, on dying.

Robert Gottlieb
Robert Gottlieb

The first movement ballerina should be a paradigm of strength and authority.

Robert Gottlieb
Robert Gottlieb

As an editor, I have to be tactful, of course.

Robert Gottlieb
Robert Gottlieb

'Ocean's Kingdom' is a fairy story with no subtext, no resonance - it's not about anything except its water-logged plot.

Robert Gottlieb
Robert Gottlieb

Charles Dickens left us fifteen novels, and in an ideal world, everyone would read all of them.

Robert Gottlieb
Robert Gottlieb

It's a crapshoot, publishing.

Robert Gottlieb
Robert Gottlieb

Jodi Melnick is hotly self-absorbed. Her onstage musicians are much too loud, and like so many narcissistic performers, she goes on much too long: She's interested in herself; why wouldn't we be?

Robert Gottlieb
Robert Gottlieb

One of the eternal mysteries of ballet is how untalented choreographers find backers for their work, and then find good dancers to perform in it. Is it irresistible charm? Chutzpah? Pure determination? Blackmail? Or are so many supposedly knowledgeable people just plain blind?

Robert Gottlieb
Robert Gottlieb

You have to surrender to a book. If you do, when something in it seems to be going askew, you are wounded. The more you have surrendered to a book, the more jarring its errors appear.

Robert Gottlieb
Robert Gottlieb

What 'War and Peace' is to the novel and 'Hamlet' is to the theater, Swan Lake' is to ballet - that is, the name which to many people stands for and sums up an art form.

Robert Gottlieb
Robert Gottlieb

In my view, the ebook world for both established and new authors is a terrific new and exciting format. It is a format that will bring forth many new writers to publishing.

Robert Gottlieb
Robert Gottlieb

You may feel that Peter Martins' 'Beauty' is too compressed and inexpressive, but it's loyal to the text.

Robert Gottlieb
Robert Gottlieb

There is no consolation for anyone in the Scott Peterson story, and no final illumination.

Robert Gottlieb
Robert Gottlieb

We know that Diana Vishneva is a phenomenon of strength and style, and she certainly has earned the right to stretch her talents as best she can.

Robert Gottlieb
Robert Gottlieb

Most famous stage actors tactfully fade away.