JoSeph Conrad Cried Out to His Wife! "I don't Want Criticism, I want Praise!"

I came upon this Conrad quote--reputedly in response to a bad review--while in in the Stanford Creative Writing workshop, working on what became my first published novel: High on the Energy Bridge (1980).  I printed the quote and taped it on the wall above my writing desk, and referred to it often during several decades of teaching creative writing workshops.  Former students may  remember my admonition: praise first, then critique when we considered student work.   It's much easier to respond well to criticism after praise.  Writers, after all, are only human, and never more so than when their work is being considered, assessed and perhaps shredded by appraising eyes.

I was thinking about the Conrad quote after  _______'s review of Cuppy and Stew appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle on June 10th.