Ebert Quotes

#1. 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

#2. 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

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

Roger Ebert

#4. We know Roger Ebert loved the 'Sun-Times' and his career as a newspaper columnist. But ironically, it was his illness and losing his voice that caused him to explore another venue.

Bill Kurtis

#5. But I still have him in the form of the finest and highest standard of what it means to be a journalist and critic. All my life, Roger Ebert has always been the bar I've tried to reach. I never will. But his example has made me stronger through failure.

Andy Ihnatko

#6. Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel first championed my film, 'Hoop Dreams,' which was essential to its success. Roger remained a great supporter of my work throughout my career, and I'll never forget him tweeting about 'The Interrupters' right before its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in 2011.

Steve James

#7. My rule of thumb is, what Siskel and Ebert like, I don't, and vice versa.

David Lynch

#8. I think reviewers have become particularly venomous because, in a way, the power has been sucked from them. A 15-year-old can write a review on the Internet and it means as much as Roger Ebert's review, and that just makes Roger Ebert mad, so he comes out harder and stronger.

Todd Phillips

#9. 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

#10. 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

#11. 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

#12. 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

#13. In LA I was watching At the Movies with Ebert and Roper, it was, nice to see them differentiate between the subject matter and the art form of making the film, and they both gave it thumbs up, and I was kind of pleased at their honesty as far as reviewers go.

Michael Berryman

#14. I met Roger Ebert at an independent-film awards or something. And he said, 'When I saw you just now, I wanted to punch you in the face. And then I had to remember you're an actor. So, congratulations!' Those are my accolades.

Leo Fitzpatrick

#15. Every bad decision I've made has been based on money. I grew up in the projects and you don't turn down money there. You take it, because you never know when it's all going to end. I made Cop III because they offered me $15 million. That $15 million was worth having Roger Ebert's thumb up my ass.

Eddie Murphy

#16. I am a soldier and I worked for the kaiser, under Ebert, Hindenburg, and Hitler, all the same way, for the past 44 years.

Wilhelm Keitel

#17. The National Association of Theater Concessionaires reported that in 1986, 60% of all candy sold in movie theaters was sold to Roger Ebert.

David Letterman

#18. 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

#19. I'd rather be called a N*gger than a Slave.

Roger Ebert

#20. If you have to ask what it symbolizes, it didn't.

Roger Ebert

#21. I am utterly bored by celebrity interviews. Most celebrities are devoid of interest.

Roger Ebert

#22. 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

#23. The screenplay is so well-written in a scruffy, fanzine way that you want to rub noses in it - the noses of those zombie writers who take 'screenwriting' classes that teach them the formulas for 'hit films.'

Roger Ebert

#24. There are two things you can't argue in film: comedy and eroticism. If something doesn't make you laugh, no one can tell you why it's funny, and it's difficult to reason someone out of an erection.

Roger Ebert

#25. It is human nature to look away from illness. We don't enjoy a reminder of our own fragile mortality. That's why writing on the Internet has become a life-saver for me. My ability to think and write have not been affected. And on the Web, my real voice finds expression.

Roger Ebert

#26. Berlin would be a great place to have no cell phone, I think. Especially if you were able to live in a central location.

Alex Ebert

#27. Films like Fargo are why I love the movies.

Roger Ebert

#28. No matter what they're charging to get in, it's worth more to get out.

Roger Ebert

#29. Recording music is not really the healthiest thing for the body.

Alex Ebert

#30. This sucks on so many levels." Dialogue from "Jason X" Rare for a movie to so frankly describe itself. "Jason X" sucks on the levels of storytelling, character development, suspense, special effects, originality, punctuation, neatness and aptness of thought.

Roger Ebert

#31. 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

#32. I know aliens from other worlds are required to arrive in New Mexico, but why stay there?

Roger Ebert

#33. It's so rare that I'll read or even watch an interview. I don't want to, either. I don't want to see other people's comments.

Alex Ebert

#34. What makes people interesting is the spirit that shines through.

Roger Ebert

#35. To call A Lot like Love dead in the water is an insult to water.

Roger Ebert

#36. What in the world is a leave of presence? It means I am not going away,

Roger Ebert

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

Roger Ebert

#38. Fight Club is a thrill ride masquerading as philosophy - the kind of ride where some people puke and others can't wait to get on again.

Roger Ebert

#39. 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

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

Roger Ebert

#41. 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

#42. Oh, here comes Mel Blanc, the voice of Bugs Bunny and Jimmy Smits!

Roger Ebert

#43. 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

#44. The layout was griping, the glide is awesome. Two ten-inch fins up, way up.

Roger Ebert

#45. Valentines Day is being marketed as a Date Movie. I think its more of a First-Date Movie. If your date likes it, do not date that person again. And if you like it, there may not be a second date.

Roger Ebert

#46. All I require of a religion is that it be tolerant of those who do not agree with it.

Roger Ebert

#47. We must try to contribute joy to the world.

Roger Ebert

#48. 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

#49. I was perfectly content before I was born, and I think of death as the same state. What I am grateful for is the gift of intelligence, and for life, love, wonder, and laughter. You can't say it wasn't interesting. My lifetime's memories are what I have brought home from the trip.

Roger Ebert

#50. The problem with being sure that God is on your side is that you can't change your mind, because God sure isn't going to change His.

Roger Ebert

#51. There must be a better reason to have a baby than to provide a plot point in a rom-com. Don't you think?

Roger Ebert

#52. What happens in a fantasy can be more involving than what happens in life, and thank goodness for that.

Roger Ebert

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

Roger Ebert

#54. 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

#55. 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

#56. I felt it would to add a great deal to my legend for eccentricity.

Roger Ebert

#57. 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

#58. One of the weapons Marvel used in its climb to comic-book dominance was a willingness to invent new characters at a dizzying speed. There are so many Marvel universes, indeed, that some superheroes do not even exist in one another's worlds, preventing gridlock.

Roger Ebert

#59. The movie Ed Wood, about the worst director of all time, was made to prepare us for Stargate.

Roger Ebert

#60. As the man says in the play, for this relief, much thanks.

Roger Ebert

#61. I am proudly a liberal. I am also patriotic, reasonable, pro-American, and stand for family values.

Roger Ebert

#62. Because of the rush of human knowledge, because of the digital revolution, I have a voice, and I do not need to scream.

Roger Ebert

#63. Why are some people bullied? Because they are different. How? It doesn't matter.

Roger Ebert

#64. 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

#65. Perhaps it is the nature of man not to wish to know too much about his own nature.

Roger Ebert

#66. 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

#67. 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

#68. There are few lonelier sights than a good comedian being funny in a movie that doesn't know what funny is.

Roger Ebert

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

Roger Ebert

#70. 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

#71. The movie cheerfully offends all civilized notions of taste, decorum, manners and hygiene ... is the movie vulgar? Vulgarity is when we don't laugh. When we laugh, it's merely human nature.

Roger Ebert

#72. 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

#73. [Orson Welles] was a man who made the greatest film ever made and was never forgiven for it.

Roger Ebert

#74. That's what fantasies are for, to help us imagine that things are better than they are.

Roger Ebert

#75. Film theory has nothing to do with film.

Roger Ebert

#76. Movies are not about moving, but about whether to move.

Roger Ebert

#77. Families and their problems go on and on, and they aren't solved, they're dealt with.

Roger Ebert

#78. Cinema, for me, has always been something like music composed with photographic images.

Roger Ebert

#79. I am grateful for the gifts of intelligence, love, wonder and laughter. You can't say it wasn't interesting.

Roger Ebert

#80. 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

#81. I will one day be thin, but Vincent Gallo will always be the director of The Brown Bunny.

Roger Ebert

#82. Last year, I reviewed a nine-hour documentary about the lives of Mongolian yak herdsmen, and I would rather see it again than sit through The Frighteners.

Roger Ebert

#83. I wear a pedometer, a little device that counts every step. It works as a goad, because you walk additional distances to pile up the numbers. The average person walks 2,000 to 3,000 steps a day. I walk 10,000 steps a day. I have lost a lot of weight as a result.

Roger Ebert

#84. The Golden Thumb is not as good as the Oscar, but it is a lot of fun.

Roger Ebert

#85. 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

#86. A lot of people just go to movies that feed into their preexisting and not so noble needs and desires: They just go to action pictures, and things like that.

Roger Ebert

#87. Not everyone needs to be slammed into a category and locked there.

Roger Ebert

#88. 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

#89. 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

#90. I think most people are more susceptible to prejudice than to reason.

Roger Ebert

#91. On this ancient and miraculous world, where such beautiful natural and living things have evolved, something has gone wrong when life itself is used as a manufacturing process.

Roger Ebert

#92. 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

#93. 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

#94. I think Edward Sharpe's music is counter-cultural music in the strangest sense where you have a time now where love, optimism, hope and community are uncool and not part of the mainstream culture.

Alex Ebert

#95. The ability of an audience to enter into the narrative arc of a movie is being lost; do today's audiences have the patience to wait for Harry Lime in The Third Man?

Roger Ebert

#96. 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

#97. Kindness' covers all of my political beliefs.

Roger Ebert

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

Roger Ebert

#99. It is not enough for a movie to be righteous. It must also be watchable.

Roger Ebert

#100. It has been said that the reason we establish relationships is to assure ourselves of a witness to our lives.

Roger Ebert