Best Ebert Quotes & Sayings

I'm kind of glad the web is sort of totally anarchic. That's fine with me. — Roger Ebert

Sarah Palin lacked the preparation or temperament to be one heartbeat away from the presidency, but what she possessed in abundance was the ability to inflame political passions and energize the John McCain campaign with star quality. — Roger Ebert

One sign of a great actor is when he can be alone by himself on the screen, doing almost nothing, and producing one of a film's defining moments. — Roger Ebert

Time is what the depressed and panicked lack. — Roger Ebert

I have entered the New Yorker's Cartoon Caption Contest almost weekly virtually since it began and have never even been a finalist. I have done more writing for free for the New Yorker in the last five years than for anybody in the previous 40 years. It's not that I think my cartoon captions are better than anyone else's, although some weeks, understandably, I do. It's that just once I want to see one of my damn captions in the magazine that publishes the best cartoons in the world."
- Roger Ebert
(By the way, in 2011 Ebert finally won, after 107 tries.) — Bob Mankoff

Roger Ebert was such a champion of underrepresented filmmakers. He was a very big deal to me. It shows the power of critics. People who write about film, like you, can really affect the confidence of a young filmmaker. He did that for me, so it was such a pleasure to have an opportunity to talk about Roger in the movie. — Ava DuVernay

I think most people are more susceptible to prejudice than to reason. — Roger Ebert

What makes me deeply vulnerable? Probably the thing I suffer most from and have the most uncontrollable reactions from is still social anxiety. — Alex Ebert

Never marry someone who doesn't love the movies you love. Sooner or later, that person will not love you. — Roger Ebert

Here is a children's film made for the world we should live in, rather than the one we occupy. A film with no villains. No fight scenes. No evil adults. No fighting between the two kids. No scary monsters. No darkness before the dawn. A world that is benign. A world where if you meet a strange towering creature in the forest, you curl up on its tummy and have a nap. — Roger Ebert

At its best, a live show is completely transcendent. The image I get is breaking through glass or shooting out into the free zone. — Alex Ebert

My pain is usually caused by some sort of attack on my ego. So usually, pain is an indication of something that, eventually, I'm going to want to transcend. But sometimes pain is just pain that you sit through. I find it can have a really exhilarating effect. — Alex 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

I think fun is one of the best gifts we can give to each other. If everyone was having fun we'd be in good shape. — Alex 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

'Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter' is without a doubt the best film we are ever likely to see on the subject - unless there is a sequel, which is unlikely, because at the end, the Lincolns are on their way to the theater. — Roger Ebert

Some of these people make my skin crawl. — Roger Ebert

Because we can engineer genetics, because we can telecast real lives-of course we must, right? But are these good things to do? The irony is, the people who will finally answer that question will be the very ones produced by the process. — Roger Ebert

I believe that if, at the end, 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. — Roger Ebert

In the best of all possible worlds, directors would obsess about the quality of their storytelling, and not the details of their technical methods. — Roger Ebert

I felt it would to add a great deal to my legend for eccentricity. — 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 do suspect my star ratings average too high. But, of course, star ratings are ridiculous. I'm stuck with them. — Roger Ebert

'Marley' does what is probably the best possible job of documenting an important life. — 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

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

A truly strong woman will choose a stong man who disagrees with her over a weak one who goes along. — Roger Ebert

It is commonplace to say that silent films are more "dreamlike," but what does that mean? In Nosferatu, it means that the characters are confronted with alarming images and denied the freedom to talk them away. There is no repartee in nightmares. Human speech dissipates the shadows and makes a room seem normal. Those things that live only at night do not need to talk, for their victims are asleep, waiting. — Roger Ebert

One difference between film noir and more straightforward crime pictures is that noir is more open to human flaws and likes to embed them in twisty plot lines. — Roger Ebert

[Marlon] Brando was the only guy who could step out of that shadow at the end of that movie and be worth the wait. — 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

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

When we're discussing who to invite to a dinner party, my wife Chaz and I sometimes use the shorthand, 'good value for money,' which indicates guests expected to be entertaining. — 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

The Academy is paranoid about its image. — Roger Ebert

I know as a critic I'm required to have a well-armored heart. I must be a cynical wise guy to show my great sophistication. No pushover, me. — 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

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

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

We think of first love as sweet and valuable, a blessed if hazardous condition. — Roger Ebert

Hip hop was definitely, far and away, the primary influence for at least 10 years of my life. From about 7 or 8 on till about 15 or 16, that's all I listened to. — Alex Ebert

I don't think Bush was legitimately elected President. — Roger Ebert

I've been around a long time, and young men, if there is one thing I know, it is that the only way to kiss a girl for the first time is to look like you want to and intend do, and move in fast enough to seem eager but slow enough to give her a chance to say "So anyway ... " and look up as if she's trying to remember your name. — Roger Ebert

Unless you are in the willingness and ease and ecstasy of some kind of moment, you may end up the editor of your thoughts and of your expressions. I find I'm that way on stage. — Alex 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

In Hollywood, 'under development' means 'all I have is the title.' — Roger Ebert