Roger Ebert Quotes

“All I know is, it is better to be the whale than the squid.”

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

“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.”

“At the end of the day, some authors will endure and most, including some very good ones, will not. Why do I think reading is important? It is such an effective medium between mind and mind. We think largely in words. A medium made only of words doesn't impose the barrier of any other medium. It is naked and unprotected communication. That's how you get pregnant. May you always be so.”

“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.”

“I was born inside the movie of my life. The visuals were before me, the audio surrounded me, the plot unfolded inevitably but not necessarily. I don't remember how I got into the movie, but it continues to entertain me.”

“It’s hard to explain the fun to be found in seeing the right kind of bad movie.”

“Life always has an unhappy ending, but you can have a lot of fun along the way, and everything doesn't have to be dripping in deep significance.”

“Never marry someone who doesn’t love the movies you love. Sooner or later, that person will not love you.”

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

“Orson Welles was a man who made the greatest film ever made and was never forgiven for it.”

“People trying to be funny are never as funny as people trying to be serious and failing.”

“So much of what happens by chance forms what becomes your life.”

“The Muse visits during the process of creation, not before.”

“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.”

“We are put on this planet only once, and to limit ourselves to the familiar is a crime against our minds.”

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

“You know a movie is slow when you start looking to see what time it is. You know it’s awful when you start shaking your watch to see if it has stopped.”

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

“A lot of fans are basically fans of fandom itself. It's all about them. They have mastered the Star Wars or Star Trek universes or whatever, but their objects of veneration are useful mainly as a backdrop to their own devotion. Anyone who would camp out in a tent on the sidewalk for weeks in order to be first in line for a movie is more into camping on the sidewalk than movies. Extreme fandom may serve as a security blanket for the socially inept, who use its extreme structure as a substitute for social skills. If you are Luke Skywalker and she is Princess Leia, you already know what to say to each other, which is so much safer than having to ad lib it. Your fannish obsession is your beard. If you know absolutely all the trivia about your cubbyhole of pop culture, it saves you from having to know anything about anything else. That's why it's excruciatingly boring to talk to such people: They're always asking you questions they know the answer to.”

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

“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?”

“When you're young you don't realize that at every age you are always in the present, and in that sense no older;”