Roger Ebert Quotes

A collection of quotes by Roger Ebert.

Roger Ebert was an American film critic, journalist, and screenwriter, born on June 18, 1942, in Urbana, Illinois. He became one of the most influential and well-known film critics of his time, renowned for his wit, knowledge, and passion for cinema. Ebert started his career as a journalist, writing for the Chicago Sun-Times, and eventually became the newspaper's film critic in 1967.

Throughout his career, Ebert gained national and international recognition for his insightful reviews, often tackling not only the technical aspects of a film but also its cultural and societal implications. He popularized film criticism through his iconic thumbs up/thumbs down rating system on his television show, "Siskel & Ebert," which he co-hosted with fellow film critic Gene Siskel. The show became a staple of American popular culture, and their lively debates helped shape public opinion on movies.

Ebert was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism in 1975, making him the first film critic to receive such an honor. He wrote numerous books, essays, and articles discussing cinema, all while battling health issues later in life. Ebert continued writing until his death on April 4, 2013. His work continues to be celebrated and respected by filmmakers, movie enthusiasts, and fellow critics worldwide, as his impact on the field of film criticism remains profound.

A corner is important. It provides privacy and an anchor and

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

Your Highness is a juvenile excrescence that feels like the

Your Highness is a juvenile excrescence that feels like the work of 11-year-old boys in love with dungeons, dragons, warrior women, pot, boobs and four-letter words. One of the heroes even wears the penis of a minotaur on a string around his neck. I hate it when that happens.

Work Love Women Heroes

It is human nature to look away from illness. We don't enjoy

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.

Life Nature Ability Humannature

An honest bookstore would post the following sign above its

An honest bookstore would post the following sign above its 'self-help' section: 'For true self-help, please visit our philosophy, literature, history and science sections, find yourself a good book, read it, and think about it.

Self Help Science Reading History Philosophy Literature Bookstores

We can now have action movies with two stars where one might

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.

If a movie is really working, you forget for two hours your

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.

Let me tell you a story. The day after Columbine, I was inte

Let me tell you a story. The day after Columbine, I was interviewed for the Tom Brokaw news program. The reporter had been assigned a theory and was seeking sound bites to support it. Wouldn't you say, she asked, that killings like this are influenced by violent movies? No, I said, I wouldn't say that. But what about 'Basketball Diaries'? She asked. Doesn't that have a scene of a boy walking into a school with a machine gun? The obscure 1995 Leonardo Di Caprio movie did indeed have a brief fantasy scene of that nature, I said, but the movie failed at the box office, and it's unlikely the Columbine killers saw it. The reporter looked disappointed, so I offered her my theory. Events like this, I said, if they are influenced by anything, are influenced by news programs like your own. When an unbalanced kid walks into a school and starts shooting, it becomes a major media event. Cable news drops ordinary programming and goes around the clock with it. The story is assigned a logo and a theme song; These two kids were packaged as the Trench Coat Mafia. The message is clear to other disturbed kids around the country: If I shoot up my school, I can be famous. The TV will talk about nothing else but me. Experts will try to figure out what I was thinking. The kids and teachers at school will see they shouldn't have messed with me. I'll go out in a blaze of glory.

Doing research on the Web is like using a library assembled

Doing research on the Web is like using a library assembled piecemeal by pack rats and vandalized nightly.

Of what use is freedom of speech to those who fear to offend

Of what use is freedom of speech to those who fear to offend?

People read the papers not in the hopes of learning somethin

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.

The movies that are made more thoughtfully or made or with m

The movies that are made more thoughtfully or made or with more ambition often get just get drowned out by the noise.

A lot of people just go to movies that feed into their preex

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.

It's a good question, because a movie isn't good or bad base

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.

I begin to feel like most Americans don't understand the Fir

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.

If a movie isn't a hit right out of the gate, they drop it.

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.

The right really dominates radio, and it's amazing how much

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.

No good movie is too long and no bad movie is short enough.

No good movie is too long and no bad movie is short enough.

It's funny that there was so much disturbance about having a

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.

Most of us do not consciously look at movies.

Most of us do not consciously look at movies.

Your intellect may be confused, but your emotions will never

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