Roger Ebert Quotes & Sayings

One, don't wait for inspiration, just start the damned thing. Two, once you begin, keep on until the end. How do you know how the story should begin until you find out where it's going? — Roger Ebert

All over the web there are some very good critics and it's become for people who are interested. It's become a very good way to get to reviews and involve yourself in discussions. — Roger Ebert

Open-heart surgery is now part of a typical life experience for many people. Folks talk casually about 'having a stent put in,' as if they had their tires rotated. — Roger Ebert

Praise without merit is more harmful than unearned criticism. — Roger Ebert

Going to a movie so you won't be offended is like eating potato chips made with Olestra; you avoid the dangers of the real thing, but your insides fill up with synthetic runny stuff. — Roger Ebert

If a movie isn't a hit right out of the gate, they drop it. Which means that the whole mainstream Hollywood product has been skewed toward violence and vulgar teen comedy. — Roger Ebert

I like smart movies about smart people, and enjoy it when most of the facts are on the table and we can contemplate them together. — Roger Ebert

Entertainment is about the way things should be. Art is about the way they are. — Roger Ebert

Not everyone needs to be slammed into a category and locked there. — Roger Ebert

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

You are never warmer than when you have been cold. — Roger Ebert

Because I don't give the studios advanced quotes or an advanced look at my reviews. I think the readers deserve to read my reviews before the studios do. — Roger Ebert

We can't help identifying with the protagonist. It's coded in our movie-going DNA. — Roger Ebert

I think that probably the - I don't give quotes to studios. They have to get those out of the paper or from television. So they wouldn't have had my quote opening day. — Roger Ebert

Blockbusters run the mainstream industry. We may never again have a decade like the 1970s, when directors were able to find such freedom. — Roger Ebert

I am, beneath everything else, a fan. I was fixed in this mode as a young boy and am awed by people who take the risks of performance. — Roger Ebert

When a girl says she likes you as a friend, what she means is: "Rather than have sex with you, I would prefer to lose you as a friend." — Roger Ebert

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

Friends don't let Jackasses drink and drive. — Roger Ebert

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

That's what fantasies are for, to help us imagine that things are better than they are. — Roger Ebert

Much has been written about Generation X and the films about it. Clerks is so utterly authentic that its heroes have never heard of their generation. When they think of "X," it's on the way to the video store. — Roger Ebert

So much of what happens by chance forms what becomes your life. — Roger Ebert

A lot of fans are basically fans of fandom itself. It's all about them. They have mastered the Star Wars or Star Trek universes or whatever, but their objects of veneration are useful mainly as a backdrop to their own devotion. Anyone who would camp out in a tent on the sidewalk for weeks in order to be first in line for a movie is more into camping on the sidewalk than movies. Extreme fandom may serve as a security blanket for the socially inept, who use its extreme structure as a substitute for social skills. If you are Luke Skywalker and she is Princess Leia, you already know what to say to each other, which is so much safer than having to ad lib it. Your fannish obsession is your beard. If you know absolutely all the trivia about your cubbyhole of pop culture, it saves you from having to know anything about anything else. That's why it's excruciatingly boring to talk to such people: They're always asking you questions they know the answer to. — Roger Ebert

We are poor mortals, but it dreams to us that we can fly. — Roger Ebert

It's a good question, because a movie isn't good or bad based on its politics. It's usually good or bad for other reasons, though you might agree or disagree with its politics. — Roger Ebert

A few actresses have all but set up shop as women of a certain age who attract younger lovers. I think of Susan Sarandon, Cameron Diaz and Isabelle Huppert. — Roger Ebert

Going to see Godzilla at the Palais of the Cannes Film Festival is like attending a satanic ritual in St. Peter's Basilica. — Roger Ebert

The children of Birmingham did not really die in the State of Alabama, however, because Alabama is a state of mind, and in the minds of the [white] men who rule Alabama, those children had never lived [ ... ] their blood is on so many hands, that history will weep in the telling ... and it is not new blood. It is old, so very old. — Roger Ebert

Life is made up of challenges that cannot be solved but only accepted. — Roger Ebert

It is said that the human brain divides its functions. The right brain is devoted to sensory impressions, emotions, colors, music. The left brain deals with abstract thought, logic, philosophy, analysis.
My definition of a great movie: While you're watching it, it engages your right brain. When it's over, it engages your left brain. — Roger Ebert

We laugh, that we may not cry. — Roger Ebert

When I had been a film critic for ten minutes, I treated Doris Day as a target for cheap shots. I have learned enough to say today that the woman was remarkably gifted. — Roger Ebert

Catholic theology believes that God gave man free will, and you can't give somebody free will and then send in a play from the sidelines. — Roger Ebert

It's strange: We leave the movie having enjoyed its conclusion so much that we almost forgot our earlier reservations. But they were there, and they were real. — Roger Ebert

You can't just tell actors, especially young ones, to 'act happy' and expect them to do it. They must in some essential way be happy. — Roger Ebert

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

I will one day be thin, but Vincent Gallo will always be the director of The Brown Bunny. — Roger Ebert

It's like the high school production of something you saw at Steppenwolf, with the most gifted students in drama class playing the John Malkovich and Joan Allen roles. — Roger Ebert

People read the papers not in the hopes of learning something new, but in the expectation of being told what they already know. This is a form of living death. Its apotheosis is the daily poll in USA Today, which informs us what percentage of a small number of unscientifically selected people called a toll number to vote on questions that cannot possibly be responded to with a yes or no. — 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

[Orson Welles] was a man who made the greatest film ever made and was never forgiven for it. — Roger Ebert

Occasionally an unsuspecting innocent will stumble into a movie like this and send me an anguished postcard, asking how I could possibly give a favorable review to such trash. My stock response is Ebert's Law, which reads: A movie is not about what it is about. It is about how it is about it. — Roger 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

In the vast majority of movies, everything is done for the audience. We are cued to laugh or cry, be frightened or relieved; Hitchcock called the movies a machine for causing emotions in the audience. Bresson (and Ozu) take a different approach. They regard, and ask us to regard along with them, and to arrive at conclusions about their characters that are our own. This is the cinema of empathy. — Roger Ebert

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

(1) the Muse visits during, not before, the act of composition, and (2) the writer takes dictation from that place in his mind that knows what he should write next. — Roger Ebert

Sometimes miraculous films come into being, made by people you've never heard of, starring unknown faces, blindsiding you with creative genius. — Roger Ebert

As a child I simply did not notice whether a movie was in color or not. The movies themselves were such an overwhelming mystery that if they wanted to be in black and white, that was their business. — Roger Ebert

All but a very few of us are in debt. We exist as entities who borrow money and spend the rest of our lives making interest payments on a debt tally that never seems to budge. Whatever wealth we have, in labor, property or cash, is suctioned to the top. — Roger Ebert

Nobody looks perfect. We have to find peace with the way we look and get on with life. — Roger Ebert

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

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

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

An actress should never, ever, be asked to run beside a van in red disco boots for more than about half a block, and then only if her child is being kidnapped. — 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

Films to the degree that they glorify mindlessness and short attention span they are bad, to the degree that they encourage empathy with people not like ourselves and encourage us to think about life, they are good. — Roger Ebert

When I go to a great movie, I can live somebody else's life a little bit for a while. I can walk in somebody else's shoes. I can see what it feels like to be a member of a different gender, a different race, a different economic class, to live in a different time, to have a different belief. — Roger Ebert

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

Dear Bill (O'Reilly) ... I am concerned that you have been losing touch with reality recently. Did you really say you are more powerful than any politician?
That reminds me of the famous story about Squeaky the Chicago Mouse. It seems that Squeaky was floating on his back along the Chicago River one day. Approaching the Michigan Avenue lift bridge, he called out: Raise the bridge! I have an erection! — Roger Ebert

The Golden Thumb is not as good as the Oscar, but it is a lot of fun. — Roger Ebert

A young girl is possessed by a devil, and Constantine shouts, 'I need a mirror! Now! At least three feet high!' He can capture the demon in the mirror and throw it out the window, see, although you wonder why supernatural beings would have such low-tech security holes. — Roger Ebert

We are the playthings of the gods. — Roger Ebert

What I believe is that all clear-minded people should remain two things throughout their lifetimes: Curious and teachable. — Roger Ebert

There are often lists of the great living male movie stars. How often do you see the name of Nicolas Cage? He should always be up there. He's daring and fearless in his choice of roles, and unafraid to crawl out on a limb, saw it off and remain suspended in air. — Roger Ebert

My lifetime's memories are what I have brought home from the trip. I will require them for eternity no more than that little souvenir of the Eiffel Tower I brought home from Paris. — Roger Ebert

I was indeed a snob, if you agree with this definition: 'A person who believes that their tastes in a particular area are superior to those of other people.' I do believe that. Not superior to all other people, but to some, most probably including those who think Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen is a great film. That is not simply ego on my part. It is a faith that after writing and teaching about films for more than 40 years, my tastes are more evolved than those of a fanboy. — Roger Ebert

My motto: 'No good movie is depressing. All bad movies are depressing.' — 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

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

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

They give you a smaller glass so it feels like you're getting more, — Roger Ebert

One of the gifts one movie lover can give another is the title of a wonderful film they have not yet discovered — Roger Ebert

It's funny that there was so much disturbance about having a Catholic in the White House with Kennedy, and when we finally get a religion in the White House that's causing a lot of conflicts, and concerns, and disturbances for a lot of people, it's in the Bush Administration. — 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've never found kicks to the groin particularly funny, although recent work in the genre of the buddy movie suggests audience research must prove me wrong. — Roger Ebert

The ability of so many people to live comfortably with the idea of capital punishment is perhaps a clue to how so many Europeans were able to live with the idea of the Holocaust: Once you accept the notion that the state has the right to kill someone and the right to define what is a capital crime, aren't you halfway there? — Roger Ebert

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

Low self esteem involves imagining the worst that other people can think about you. — Roger Ebert

Of all the arts, movies are the most powerful aid to empathy, and good ones make us into better people. — Roger Ebert

I have been here before, I am here now, I will be here again. — Roger Ebert

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

At the end of the day, some authors will endure and most, including some very good ones, will not. Why do I think reading is important? It is such an effective medium between mind and mind. We think largely in words. A medium made only of words doesn't impose the barrier of any other medium. It is naked and unprotected communication. That's how you get pregnant. May you always be so. — 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

Every great film should seem new every time you see it.
Roger Ebert — Roger Ebert

And yet, even so, there is a way to find happiness. That is to be curious about all of the interlocking events that add up to our lives. To notice connections. To be amused or perhaps frightened by the ways things work out. If the universe is indifferent, what a consolation that we are not. — Roger Ebert

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

I think we have to get beyond the idea that we have to categorize people. — 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

Political correctness is the fascism of the 90's, it is this rigid feeling that you have to keep your ideas and your way of looking at things within very narrow boundaries or else you'll offend someone. Certainly one of the purposes of journalism is to challenge just that way of thinking, and certainly one of the purposes of criticism is to break boundaries, that's also one of the purposes of art. — Roger Ebert

Clouds do not really look like camels or sailing ships or castles in the sky. They are simply a natural process at work. So too, perhaps, are our lives. — Roger Ebert

I stopped taking notes on my Palm Pilot and started playing the little chess game. — Roger Ebert

In my reviews, I feel it's good to make it clear that I'm not proposing objective truth, but subjective reactions; a review should reflect the immediate experience. — Roger Ebert

Jane Austen wrote six of the most beloved novels in the English language, we are informed at the end of Becoming Jane, and so she did. The key word is beloved. Her admirers do not analyze her books so much as they just plain love them to pieces. — Roger Ebert

Anyone who has the price of a newspaper should have a fair chance of understanding most of what's written in it, — Roger Ebert

I may appear to suffer from some sort of compulsive repetition syndrome, but these rituals are important to me. I have many places where I sit and think, "I have been here before, I am here now, and I will be here again." Sometimes, lost in reverie, I remember myself approaching across the same green, or down the same footpath, in 1962 or 1983, or many other times. Sometimes Chaz comes along on my rituals, but just as often I go alone. Sometimes Chaz will say she's going shopping, or visiting a friend, or just staying in the room and reading in bed. "Why don't you go and touch your bases?" she'll ask me. I know she sympathizes. These secret visits are a way for me to measure the wheel of the years and my passage through life. Sometimes on this voyage through life we need to sit on the deck and regard the waves. — Roger Ebert

There must be something deep within our memory as a species that is pleased by being able to look at what is making us warm. — Roger Ebert

The moment a man stops dreaming is the moment he petrifies inside. — 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

The sad thing is that when movies like this fail, executives think that proves there's no audience for unusual, original pictures - because they think they've made one. — Roger Ebert