Roger Ebert Quotes

Every great film should seem new every time you see it.

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

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.

To make others less happy is a crime. To make ourselves unhappy is where all crime starts.

You can have a movie with hardly any cuts, or very few cuts, that is fascinating, you can't take your eyes away from it... Look at some of the long takes in Citizen Kane.

I lost faith in the Oscars the first year I was a movie critic - the year that Bonnie and Clyde didn't win.

I believe empathy is the most essential quality of civilization.

I think we have to get beyond the idea that we have to categorize people.

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.

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

I do not fear death. 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.

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

I think that probably the - I don't give quotes to studios. They have to get those out of the paper or from television. So they wouldn't have had my quote opening day.

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

Life is made up of challenges that cannot be solved but only accepted.

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.

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.

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.

We laugh, that we may not cry.

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

If there's one thing I've learned in this life, it's that you never say no to an old gypsy woman with a blind eye and leprous fingernails.

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.

No movie has ever been able to provide a catharsis for the Holocaust, and I suspect none will ever be able to provide one for 9/11. Such subjects overwhelm art.

Kindness’ covers all of my political beliefs.

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

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

Going to see Godzilla at the Palais of the Cannes Film Festival is like attending a satanic ritual in St. Peter's Basilica.

Skateboarding is forever, and things like college and girls only ruin an endlessly savored adolescence.

The very fact of snow is such an amazement.

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.

Clouds do not really look like camels or sailing ships or castles in the sky. They are simply a natural process at work. So too, perhaps, are our lives.

Praise without merit is more harmful than unearned criticism.

I begin to feel like I was in the last generation of Americans who took a civics class.

I was perfectly content before I was born, and I think of death as the same state.

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

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?

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

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

My motto: 'No good movie is depressing. All bad movies are depressing.'

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

I like smart movies about smart people, and enjoy it when most of the facts are on the table and we can contemplate them together.

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.

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

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

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.

All good art is about something deeper than it admits.

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.

I don't require movies to be about good people, and I don't reject screen violence.

The Academy is paranoid about its image.

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