Ebert Quotes & Sayings

I had a hard time watching Wolf Creek. It is a film with one clear purpose: To establish the commercial credentials of its director by showing his skill at depicting the brutal tracking, torture and mutilation of screaming young women. When the killer severs the spine of one of his victims and calls her "a head on a stick," I wanted to walk out of the theater and keep on walking. — Roger Ebert

Dogs notice, they share, they draw conclusions, they like it when they're able to be of service and are touchingly grateful when they're praised. — Roger Ebert

If a movie is really working, you forget for two hours your Social Security number and where your car is parked. You are having a vicarious experience. You are identifying, in one way or another, with the people on the screen. — Roger Ebert

Movies absorb our attention more completely, I think. — Roger Ebert

I'd rather be called a N*gger than a Slave. — Roger Ebert

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

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

It is all very well and good for Linda Lovelace, the star of the movie, to advocate sexual freedom; but the energy she brings to her role is less awesome than discouraging. If you have to work this hard at sexual freedom, maybe it isn't worth the effort. — 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

I began to realize that I had tended to avoid some people because of my instant conclusions about who they were and what they would have to say. I discovered that everyone, speaking honestly and openly, had important things to tell me. — Roger Ebert

Time is what the depressed and panicked lack. — 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

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

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

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

It's rare to find a film that goes for broke and says, 'To hell with the consequences.' — Roger Ebert

Well, you know what, I'm 60 years old, and I've been interested in politics since I was on my daddy's knee. During the 1948 election, we were praying for Truman. I know a lot about politics. — 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

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

As I swim through the summer tide of vulgarity, I find that's what I'm looking for: Movies that at least feel affection for their characters. Raunchy is OK. Cruel is not. — Roger Ebert

One hopeful sign that the filmmakers can learn and grow is that the sequel does not contain a single pie, if you know what I mean. — Roger Ebert

If you want to save yourself the ticket price, go into the kitchen, cue up a male choir singing the music of hell, and get a kid to start banging pots and pans together. Then close your eyes and use your imagination. — Roger Ebert

We all are born with a certain package. We are who we are: where we were born, who we were born as, how we were raised. We're kind of stuck inside that person, and the purpose of civilization and growth is to be able to reach out and empathize a little bit with other people. And for me, the movies are like a machine that generates empathy. It lets you understand a little bit more about different hopes, aspirations, dreams and fears. It helps us to identify with the people who are sharing this journey with us. — Roger Ebert

Politics, poverty, riches, etc - these are but backdrops for the grand cinema, the opera: the glory of your life. Sure, change the backdrops, make them better, but it is this inside-ness that matters most. Nothing else, at the last breath, matters, but your very own poetry. The glory of living. — Alex Ebert

How quickly we grow accustomed to wonders. I am reminded of the Isaac Asimov story "Nightfall," about the planet where the stars were visible only once in a thousand years. So awesome was the sight that it drove people mad. We who can see the stars every night glance up casually at the cosmos and then quickly down again, searching for a Dairy Queen. — 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

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

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 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

But the fact is, most people are not going to be rich someday. — Roger Ebert

It is universally agreed that Jean Renoir was one of the greatest of all directors, and he was also one of the warmest and most entertaining. — Roger Ebert

It is more erotic to wonder if you're about to be kissed than it is to be kissed. — Roger Ebert

Horror fans are a particular breed. They analyze films with such detail and expertise that I am reminded of the Canadian literary critic Northrup Frye, who approached literature with similar archetypal analysis. — 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

Gene Siskel used to describe old-age makeup as making young actors look like turtles. — Roger Ebert

For me, it's very childish to tour on a train. And I think that's a powerful quality, to inspire childishness. — Alex Ebert

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

It's hard to explain the fun to be found in seeing the right kind of bad movie. — 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

Even the most deft pen is a clumsy tool. — Alex Ebert

We are the playthings of the gods. — Roger Ebert

Dogs remember every favor you ever do for them and store those events in a memory bank titled Why My Human Is A God. — Roger Ebert

I find that when I am actually writing, I enter a zone of concentration too small to admit my troubles. — Roger Ebert

A remarkable documentary that's also one of the most beautiful nature films I've seen. — Roger Ebert

Wes Anderson's mind must be an exciting place for a story idea to be born. It immediately becomes more than a series of events and is transformed into a world with its own rules, in which everything is driven by emotions and desires as convincing as they are magical. — Roger Ebert

As we leave the theater, we are absolutely convinced that the only thing keeping the world from going crazy is that the problems of three little people do, after all, amount to more than a hill of beans. — Roger Ebert

It is quite possible for the vulgar to be funny, but to succeed, it must rise to a certain genius. — Roger Ebert

No movie featuring either Harry Dean Stanton or M. Emmet Walsh in a supporting role can be altogether bad. — Roger Ebert

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

Pixar is the first studio that is a movie star. — Roger Ebert

Recording music is not really the healthiest thing for the body. — Alex Ebert

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

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

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 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

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

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

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

The Academy is paranoid about its image. — 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

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

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

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

[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

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

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

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

Your intellect may be confused, but your emotions will never lie to you. — 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

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

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

There are many examples of great songs that become more famous when they are covered. — Alex 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

I never apologized for anything in my life. The only thing I'm sorry about is putting a curse on Roger Ebert's colon. If a fat pig like Roger Ebert doesn't like my movie, then I'm sorry for him. — Vincent Gallo

I know aliens from other worlds are required to arrive in New Mexico, but why stay there? — Roger Ebert

Under no circumstances will I ever purchase anything offered to me as the result of an unsolicited e-mail message. Nor will I forward chain letters, petitions, mass mailings, or virus warnings to large numbers of others. This is my contribution to the survival of the online community. — 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 felt it would to add a great deal to my legend for eccentricity. — 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

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

Some of these people make my skin crawl. — 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

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

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