Ebert's Quotes

#1. 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

#2. 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

#3. 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

#4. 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

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

Roger Ebert

#6. (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

#7. Here's a notion: Peace in the Middle East would come about more easily if the region were governed by women.

Roger Ebert

#8. It's not what a movie is about, it's how it is about it.

Roger Ebert

#9. It's not that I want to necessarily avoid my darker moments, but I don't capitalize them and put a crown on them and tote them around as the answer anymore.

Alex Ebert

#10. 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

#11. [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

#12. When you're in pain, you're genuinely very, very alive, and that's beautiful. Especially emotional pain.

Alex Ebert

#13. Popular music usually has a chorus that needs to repeat, and people need to remember the song. That's sort of the major guideline when you're writing a song.

Alex Ebert

#14. Battlefield Earth is like taking a bus trip with someone who has needed a bath for a long time. It's not merely bad; it's unpleasant in a hostile way.

Roger Ebert

#15. 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

#16. 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

#17. There's something depressing about a young couple helplessly in love. Their state is so perfect, it must be doomed. They project such qualities on their lover that only disappointment can follow.

Roger Ebert

#18. Reese Witherspoon is as cute as a button on Raggedy Ann's overalls, but irresistible raw sex appeal is not one of her qualities.

Roger Ebert

#19. Improvisation is a weird word because we often think it means that you make things up out of whole cloth right there on the spot, and that's rarely the case in acting. You have to know who the character is, what the situation is and what is needed.

Roger Ebert

#20. 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

#21. Who wants to live in the present? It's such a limiting period compared to the past.

Roger Ebert

#22. I begin to feel like most Americans don't understand the First Amendment, don't understand the idea of freedom of speech, and don't understand that it's the responsibility of the citizen to speak out.

Roger Ebert

#23. Many thrillers follow such reliable formulas that you can look at what's happening and guess how much longer a film has to run.

Roger Ebert

#24. 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

#25. Sometimes it's all about the casting.

Roger Ebert

#26. We can now have action movies with two stars where one might be African American and one might be Asian American. One of them doesn't have to be white, and the other one doesn't have to be the ethnic sidekick. We're way over that. And I think it's happening in society, too.

Roger Ebert

#27. 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

#28. The goal is to be free and hopeful in the music. Because that's really the only intention you need. From there, every natural and powerful intention and feeling will, on its own, slide right out of you - out of your spirit.

Alex Ebert

#29. 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

#30. 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

#31. A remarkable documentary that's also one of the most beautiful nature films I've seen.

Roger Ebert

#32. Life's missed opportunities, at the end, may seem more poignant to us than those we embraced - because in our imagination they have a perfection that reality can never rival.

Roger Ebert

#33. Troy is based on the epic poem The Iliad by Homer , according to the credits. Homer's estate should sue.

Roger Ebert

#34. Socrates told us, "the unexamined life is not worth living." I think he's calling for curiosity, more than knowledge. In every human society at all times and at all levels, the curious are at the leading edge.

Roger Ebert

#35. Why do alcoholics begin down the same hazardous road day after day? They are in search of that elusive window of well-being that opens when you drink your way out of a hangover and aren't yet drunk all over again. The alcoholic's day consists of trying to keep that window open.

Roger Ebert

#36. 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

#37. 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

#38. Just write, get better, keep writing, keep getting better. It's the only thing you can control.

Roger Ebert

#39. 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

#40. Since any reasonable person would choose a Mac over a PC, Apple's market share provides us with an accurate reading of the percentage of reasonable people in our society.

Roger Ebert

#41. 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

#42. 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

#43. 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

#44. 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

#45. 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

#46. I'm kind of glad the web is sort of totally anarchic. That's fine with me.

Roger Ebert

#47. 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

#48. Anyone who has the price of a newspaper should have a fair chance of understanding most of what's written in it,

Roger Ebert

#49. Physical pain is problematic because it's very difficult to transcend that. Sometimes you're just in physical pain, and that's a bummer. Even then, there are beautiful things involved in the healing of that. I've experienced some.

Alex Ebert

#50. We can't help identifying with the protagonist. It's coded in our movie-going DNA.

Roger Ebert

#51. 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

#52. James Cameron's films have always been distinguished by ground-breaking technical excellence.

Roger Ebert

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

Alex Ebert

#54. 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

#55. 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

#56. 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

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

Roger Ebert

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

Roger Ebert

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

Roger Ebert

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

Roger Ebert

#61. 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

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

Roger Ebert

#63. 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

#64. 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

#65. 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

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

Roger Ebert

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

Roger Ebert

#68. 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

#69. 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

#70. 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

#71. 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

#72. 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

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

Roger Ebert

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

Roger Ebert

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

Roger Ebert

#76. 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

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

Roger Ebert

#78. 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

#79. Steve Coogan picks up enough to lecture an interviewer: This is a postmodern novel before there was any modernism to be post about. Later it's claimed that Tristram Shandy was No. 8 on the Observer's list of the greatest novels, which cheers everyone until they discover the list was chronological.

Roger Ebert

#80. 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

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

Alex Ebert

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

Roger Ebert

#83. The right really dominates radio, and it's amazing how much energy the right spends telling us that the press is slanted to the left when it really isn't. They want to shut other people up. They really don't understand the First Amendment.

Roger Ebert

#84. 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

#85. 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

#86. 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

#87. That's how I gained a lifelong fondness for repeating certain phrases beyond the point of all reason.

Roger Ebert

#88. It's the same the world over. A Hollywood production comes to town, and the locals all turn movie crazy.

Roger Ebert

#89. There's nothing like impending death to rouse you from existential boredom.

Roger Ebert

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

Alex Ebert

#91. Clint, my hero, is coming across as sad and pathetic. He didn't need to do this to himself. It's unworthy of him.

Roger Ebert

#92. What's sad about not eating is the experience, whether at a family reunion or at midnight by yourself in a greasy spoon under the L tracks. The loss of dining, not the loss of food.

Roger Ebert

#93. 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

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

Roger Ebert

#96. 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

#97. 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

#98. 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

#99. 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

#100. 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