Bookplanet: author on dealing with critics

Alain de Botton has some advice for authors when they read their reviews.
"At the heart of the emotion I call status anxiety is a worry about what other people make of us. If writers are a little more prone to this feeling than most, it is because their books are evaluated in the full glare of public notice. A dentist does not have to see his work reviewed in the Guardian. It would be rare for an IT manager or hairdresser to have to face a 1,000-word critique of his or her work in a national newspaper. However shy they may be, writers are obliged by the nature of their trade repeatedly to endure the hatred and praise of strangers. How can they cope with these verdicts? How much should they listen to the world? How much should their status concern them?"
He then turns to Schopenhauer for advice. Read on.
What do I think, as an unpublished writer? If a critic gets me, I don't care if it's a pan or a rave. If a critic doesn't, he or she can go and fuck themselves with the back end of a pineapple.