Ebert Quotes

In 1970, Dean Robert Ebert offered me the Chair of Pathology at Harvard Medical School. I moved to Harvard because I missed the university environment and, more particularly, the stimulating interaction with the eager, enthusiastic, and unprejudiced young minds of the students and fellows. ~ Baruj Benacerraf

My books are a subject of much discussion. They pour from shelves onto tables, chairs and the floor, and Chaz observes that I haven't read many of them and I never will. You just never know. One day I may - need is the word I use - to read Finnegans Wake, the Icelandic sagas, Churchill's history of the Second World War, the complete Tintin in French, 47 novels by Simenon, and By Love Possessed. ~ Roger Ebert

In thinking about 'depressing movies,' many people don't realize that all bad movies are depressing, and no good movies are. ~ Roger Ebert

I think the most important thing to remember is that pain passes. And artistically, the pain is going to pass. It's what you want to express out of the pain as opposed to indulging in the agony-and-pain mantra of songwriting that became such a hit in the '90s and still, all the way up to now. ~ Alex Ebert

Doing research on the Web is like using a library assembled piecemeal by pack rats and vandalized nightly. ~ Roger Ebert

I believe that if, at the end of it all, according to our abilities, we have done something to make others a little happier, and something to make ourselves a little happier, that is about the best we can do. To make others less happy is a crime. To make ourselves unhappy is where all crime starts. We must try to contribute joy to the world. That is true no matter what our problems, our health, our circumstances. We must try. ~ Roger Ebert

By going to the movies, and because of other things, too, going to college, making a wide variety of friends, moving around traveling, I became a lot more open-minded than the heritage I was born into might have suggested. ~ Roger Ebert

I don't think Roger Ebert has ever mentioned a screenplay. He assigns every auctorial move to the director, which makes some sense since the director has run a one-off game, but if Hamlet were written last year and had been only performed once as a film, and it didn't come off well on screen for whatever reason, it would be gone forever as a literary work, and never would have been considered as one. ~ William Monahan

Nicholas Sparks recently went on record as saying he is a greater novelist than Cormac McCarthy. This is true in the same sense that I am a better novelist than William Shakespeare. ~ Roger Ebert

[D]oes the real world have any more substance than visions and hallucinations when we're having them? At any given moment, what's happening in our minds is all and everything that happens. ~ Roger Ebert

The movie has, above all, effortless charm. Once we catch on that nothing much is going to happen, we can relax and share the amusement of the actors, who are essentially being asked to share their playfulness. ~ Roger Ebert

Perhaps it is the nature of man not to wish to know too much about his own nature. ~ Roger Ebert

The album is a thing that you can hang out with between shows. I think that it's really nice to give people something they can enjoy in a private situation or walking around, just as the soundtrack of their lives. ~ Alex Ebert

It is hard enough to be good at all, but to be good in comedy speaks for your character. ~ Roger Ebert

Who was the real Hitchcock? I interviewed him once and haven't a clue. ~ Roger Ebert

Many people believe the names of In 'n Out and Steak 'n Shake perfectly describe the contrast in bedroom techniques between the coast and the heartland. ~ Roger Ebert

All I know is, it is better to be the whale than the squid. ~ Roger Ebert

An honest bookstore would post the following sign above its 'self-help' section: 'For true self-help, please visit our philosophy, literature, history and science sections, find yourself a good book, read it, and think about it. ~ Roger Ebert

What a terrible thing it would be to be the Pope! What unthinkable responsibilities to fall on your shoulders at an advanced age! No privacy. No seclusion. No sin. ~ Roger Ebert

Your life is over when you stop living it. If you can truly retire you had a job but not an occupation. ~ Roger Ebert

Immortals is without doubt the best-looking awful movie you will ever see. Eiko Ishioka's costume designs alone deserve an Oscar nomination. "They weren't at all historically accurate," grumbled a woman in the elevator after the sneak preview, as if lots of documentation exists about the wardrobes of the gods. She added: "I guess that's what we deserve for using free tickets we got at a Blackhawks game. ~ Roger Ebert

The Muse visits during the act of creation, not before. Don't wait for her. Start alone. ~ Roger Ebert

But considering that I walked in expecting no complexity at all, let alone the visual wonderments, 'Snow White and the Huntsman' is a considerable experience. ~ Roger Ebert

Families and their problems go on and on, and they aren't solved, they're dealt with. ~ Roger Ebert

Beguiled by George S. Bush's easy smile and casual indifference to the details, we are on the brink of electing him to office. This isn't choosing a president, it's casting the lead in a sitcom about the presidency. ~ Roger Ebert

What happens in a fantasy can be more involving than what happens in life, and thank goodness for that. ~ Roger Ebert

I don't require movies to be about good people, and I don't reject screen violence. ~ Roger Ebert

I am as fond of colorful language as anyone, but I try not to inflict it upon strangers. I suspect many people sense they should have better manners, and need only a nudge. In high school, I was addressed for the first time in my life as "Mister Ebert" by Stanley Hynes, an English teacher, and his formality transformed his classroom into a place where a certain courtliness prevailed. ~ Roger Ebert

Just write, get better, keep writing, keep getting better. It's the only thing you can control. ~ Roger Ebert

It's easier to identify with loss than love, because we have had so much more experience of it. ~ Roger Ebert

Movies are not about moving, but about whether to move. ~ Roger Ebert

I took a lot of long summer road trips with my dad, and the mix of music we listened to on the road skipped around from classical to Western to new age to hyper-cinematic. ~ Alex Ebert

For millions, Roger Ebert will be remembered as a writer and television personality who brought a sense of passion and excellence to his craft. For me, he is a man who fused joy and courage as few others ever have. My life was enriched by having such a friend; it is poorer for losing such a friend. ~ Jeff Greenfield

And the sexes eyeing each other uneasily, for nothing is easier for a teenager to imagine than rejection. ~ Roger Ebert

All I require of a religion is that it be tolerant of those who do not agree with it. ~ Roger Ebert

There are no guarantees. But there is also nothing to fear. We come from oblivion when we are born. We return to oblivion when we die. The astonishing thing is this period of in-between. ~ Roger Ebert

I just assume I'm right. Partially out of conviction and partially as a pose. ~ Roger Ebert

When you're comfortable, you're not necessarily inclined to care about things that are contributing to your comfort. It's difficult. ~ Alex Ebert

It often strikes me that the actors in high school movies look too old. ~ Roger Ebert

Films are no longer concerned with the silence of God, but with the chattering of men. ~ Roger Ebert

I remember when a Coke came in a six-ounce bottle, and delicious it was. Now it comes in sizes so big that I question how the human bladder can deal with the intake. ~ Roger Ebert

I believe that young people wearing hoods, unless they are very young, can be frightening. What are they hiding? Why don't they want to come out into the light with the rest of us? They may be perfectly nice, but the hoods send an uncertain statement. ~ Roger Ebert

Nothing could be more boring than an absolutely accurate movie about the law. ~ Roger Ebert

In the world of bad movies, 'Death to Smoochy' is a towering achievement. ~ Roger Ebert

Are vampires kinky? I didn't know. ~ Roger Ebert

From about 5 years old on, I was very contemplative and started to become constantly filled with nostalgia for the present moment and the feeling that it's always fleeting. ~ Alex Ebert

One of the most sublime and hazardous moments in human experience comes when two people lock eyes and realize that they are sexually attracted to one another. They may not act on the knowledge.
They may file it away for future reference. They may deny it. They may never see each other again. But the moment has happened, and for an instant all other considerations are insignificant. ~ Roger Ebert

Without democracy there is no freedom. Violence, no matter who is using it, is always reactionary. ~ Friedrich Ebert

As the man says in the play, for this relief, much thanks. ~ Roger Ebert

What's happening to movie critics is no different from what has been meted out to book, dance, theater, and fine-arts reviewers and reporters in the cultural deforestation that has driven refugees into the diffuse clatter of the Internet and Twitter, where some adapt and thrive - such as Roger Ebert - while others disappear without a twinkle. ~ James Wolcott

It is comforting to think that we can love so powerfully that fate itself wheels and turns at the command of our souls. ~ Roger Ebert

What in the world is a leave of presence? It means I am not going away, ~ Roger Ebert

Exhilarating. Radical Grace moved me to tears with its portrayal of good people putting their beliefs into action in ways that transcend all ideological boundaries. ~ Roger Ebert

I know it is coming, and I do not fear it, because I believe there is nothing on the other side of death to fear ~ Roger Ebert

Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson star. I neglected to mention that, maybe because I was trying to place them in this review's version of the Witness Protection Program. If I were taken off the movie beat and assigned to cover the interior design of bowling alleys, I would have some idea of how they must have felt as they made this film. ~ Roger Ebert

It goes to show you how we in the press so often miss the big stories that are right under our noses. There is a famous journalistic legend about the time a young reporter covered the Johnstown flood of 1889. The kid wrote: God sat on a hillside overlooking Johnstown today and looked at the destruction He had wrought. His editor cabled back: Forget flood. Interview God. ~ Roger Ebert

(Guy) Pearce, as the hero, makes the mistake of trying to give a good and realistic performance. (Jeremy) Irons at least knows what kind of movie he's in, and hams it up accordingly. ~ Roger Ebert

The other Bonds were not wrong in the role (even Lazenby has his defenders), but they were not Connery, and that was their cross to bear. ~ Roger Ebert

I am deeply honored to be making 'Life Itself,' a documentary on the life of Roger Ebert, and to have had the full cooperation and enthusiasm of Roger and his wife, Chaz. ~ Steve James

Teaching prejudice to a child is itself a form of bullying. You've got to be taught to hate. ~ Roger Ebert

I loved that these two guys argued with each other as if movies actually mattered. Nobody I knew talked about movies that way, but Siskel and Ebert took each movie as it came and talked about whether it was a success on its own terms. ~ Sarah Vowell

I am not a believer, not an atheist, not an agnostic. I am more content with questions than answers. ~ Roger Ebert

Yes, I was fat, but I dealt with it by simply never thinking about it. It is useful, when you are fat, to have a lot of other things to think about. ~ Roger Ebert

2001: A Space Odyssey is not about a goal, but about a quest, a need. ~ Roger Ebert

The very fact of snow is such an amazement. ~ Roger Ebert

In Dallas for the premier of '9 to 5', I had an uncanny experience, and on the plane home to Chicago I confessed it to Siskel: I had been granted a private half hour with Dolly Parton, and as we spoke I was filled with a strange ethereal grace. This was not spiritual, nor was it sexual. It was healing and comforting. Gene listened and said, "Roger, I felt the exact same thing during my interview with her." We looked at each other. What did this mean? Neither one of us ever felt that feeling again. From time to time we would refer to it in wonder. ~ Roger Ebert

To know me is to love me. This cliche is popular for a reason, because most of us, I imagine, believe deep in our hearts that if anyone truly got to know us, they'd truly get to love us - or at least know why we're the way we are. The problem in life, maybe the central problem, is that so few people ever seem to have sufficient curiosity to do the job on us that we know we deserve. ~ Roger Ebert

Marlon Brando is the most influential movie actor of the century. ~ Roger Ebert

If there's anything I hate more than a stupid action comedy, it's an incompetent stupid action comedy. It's not so bad it's good. It's so bad it's nothing else but bad. ~ Roger Ebert

Fellini was more in love with breasts than Russ Meyer, more wracked with guilt than Ingmar Bergman, more of a flamboyant showman than Busby Berkeley ... Amarcord seems almost to flow from the camera, as anecdotes will flow from one who has told them often and knows they work. This was the last of his films made for no better reason than Fellini wanted to make it. ~ Roger Ebert

A lot of first novels are written long before they're actually put down on paper. ~ Roger Ebert

Start. Don't look back. If at the end it doesn't meet your hopes, start again. Now you know more about your hopes. ~ Roger Ebert

And I think both the left and the right should celebrate people who have different opinions, and disagree with them, and argue with them, and differ with them, but don't just try to shut them up. ~ Roger Ebert

It's not often a thriller keeps me wound up as well as 'Headhunters' did. I knew I was being manipulated and didn't care. It was a pleasure to see how well it was being done. ~ Roger Ebert

Here's how much I know about hockey. Mike Royko and I were in a tiny bar one winter night, and the radio kept reporting goals by the Blackhawks. I mentioned how frequently the team was scoring. 'You're listening to the highlights,' Royko observed. ~ Roger Ebert

While I am usually in despair when a movie abandons its plot for a third act given over entirely to action, I have no problem with the way Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets ends, because it has been pointing toward this ending, hinting about it, preparing us for it, all the way through. What a glorious movie. ~ Roger Ebert

A corner is important. It provides privacy and an anchor and lets you exist independently of the room. ~ Roger Ebert

I believe empathy is the most essential quality of civilization. ~ Roger Ebert

What every human being should do is eat a vegetarian diet based on whole foods. Period. That's it. Animal protein is bad for you. Dairy is bad for you. Forget the ads: Milk and eggs are bad for you. ~ Roger Ebert

I am informed that 5,000 cockroaches were used in the filming of Joe's Apartment. That depresses me, but not as much as the news that none of them were harmed during the production. ~ Roger Ebert

We feel the same emotions for our ideas as we do for the real world, which is why we can cry while reading a book, or fall in love with movie stars. ~ Roger Ebert

People never think of themselves as choosing to be politically correct. They simply think in the way that they do. ~ Roger Ebert

I have no fear of death. We all die. I consider my remaining days to be like money in the bank. When it is all gone, I will be repossessed. ~ Roger Ebert

Ridley Scott's 'Prometheus' is a magnificent science-fiction film, all the more intriguing because it raises questions about the origin of human life and doesn't have the answers. ~ Roger Ebert

Oh, here comes Mel Blanc, the voice of Bugs Bunny and Jimmy Smits! ~ Roger Ebert

Home is wherever I'm with you. Home is where I'm alone with you. ~ Alex Ebert

To my knowledge, no one in or out of the field has ever been able to cite a game worthy of comparison with the great dramatists, poets, filmmakers, novelists and composers. That a game can aspire to artistic importance as a visual experience, I accept. But for most gamers, video games represent a loss of those precious hours we have available to make ourselves more cultured, civilized and empathetic. ~ Roger Ebert

From a dramatic viewpoint, there are few professions that grant their members entry into other lives, high among them cops, doctors, clergymen, journalists and prostitutes. Perhaps that explains why they figure in so much television and cinema. Their lives are lived in the midst of human drama. ~ Roger Ebert

What gets me pretty pissed off is the whole Monsanto engineered foods issue. ~ Alex Ebert

Crowds can be frightening. They have a way of impressing the low, base taste upon their members. Watching the way thousands of people in his audience could not think for themselves, could not find the courage to allow their ordinary feelings of decency and taste to prevail, I understood better how demagogues are possible. ~ Roger Ebert

The purpose of civilization and growth is to be able to reach out and empathize with other people ... For me, the movies are like a machine that generates empathy. ~ Roger Ebert

If Hollywood stars speak out, so do all sorts of other people. Now Hollywood stars can get a better hearing. ~ Roger Ebert

It's the worst kind of bad film: the kind that gets you all worked up and then lets you down, instead of just being lousy from the first shot. ~ Roger Ebert

3-D is a waste of a perfectly good dimension. Hollywood's current crazy stampede toward it is suicidal. It adds nothing essential to the moviegoing experience. For some, it is an annoying distraction. For others, it creates nausea and headaches. ~ Roger Ebert

When we go to the movies, we identify with the characters we see. That's why we go to the movies; we have a voyeuristic experience; we have an out of the body experience. The screen is more real than our thoughts are at the moment we are looking at the film and we place ourselves in the place of the people on the screen, and when they behave nobly, it makes us feel noble, when they are sad and when they have lost love, we feel sad; we can identify with that. ~ Roger Ebert

Growing up, I missed the whole 'Three Stooges' thing. Either they weren't on the station in my hometown, or we hadn't bought a TV set yet, or they came to town too late for me. I'm pretty sure that at the right age, I would have loved them. ~ Roger Ebert

James Cameron's films have always been distinguished by ground-breaking technical excellence. ~ Roger Ebert

Freedom and Justice are twin sisters. ~ Friedrich Ebert

What makes people interesting is the spirit that shines through. ~ Roger Ebert

CROUCHING TIGER is nevertheless a gloriously big epic, starring the Hong Kong action stars Chow Yun-Fat and Michelle Yeoh in a visionary adventure where the characters seem set free from the force of gravity. ~ Roger Ebert