Quotessence
Home / Authors / Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert Quotes

Film critic

Filter quotes by topic

AllPeopleFilmThinkingIfsKnowsWayWorldHumansShouldFirstsLooksLongMaySeemsTwoIdeasMadeNeedsStarsTrying

Famous Roger Ebert Quotes

“When I go to the movies, one of my strongest desires is to be shown something new. I want to go to new places, meet new people, have new experiences. When I see Hollywood formulas mindlessly repeated, a little something dies inside of me: I have lost two hours to boors who insist on telling me stories I have heard before.”

PeopleWantLittlesTwoStoriesDesireDiesLostHoursHeardHollywoodSomething NewStrongestFormulasNew ExperiencesNew PlacesMeeting New People
Book:Roger Ebert's Four Star Reviews--1967-2007
Create image

“Film theory has nothing to do with film. Students presumably hope to find out something about film, and all they will find out is an occult and arcane language designed only for the purpose of excluding those who have not mastered it and giving academic rewards to those who have. No one with any literacy, taste or intelligence would want to teach these courses, so the bona fide definition of people teaching them are people who are incapable of teaching anything else.”

PeopleWantGivingFilmPurposeCoursesLanguageTeachTeachingStudentsTheoryTasteRewardsDefinitionsAcademicIncapableLiteracyOccultArcaneFilm Students
Author:Roger Ebert
Create image

“The Bucket List is a movie about two old codgers who are nothing like people, both suffering from cancer that is nothing like cancer, and setting off on adventures that are nothing like possible. I urgently advise hospitals: Do not make the DVD available to your patients; there may be an outbreak of bedpans thrown at TV screens.”

PeopleMayTwoSufferingAdventureTvsPatientCancerAvailableScreensListsSettingSettingsThrownHospitalsAdviseBucketsDvdsBucket ListOutbreaks
Book:Roger Ebert's Movie Yearbook 2011
Create image

“The ability of so many people to live comfortably with the idea of capital punishment is perhaps a clue to how so many Europeans were able to live with the idea of the Holocaust: Once you accept the notion that the state has the right to kill someone and the right to define what is a capital crime, aren't you halfway there?”

PeopleIdeasStatesAbleAbilityAcceptingCrimeNotionPunishmentHolocaustClueHalfwayCapital PunishmentHalfway There
Book:Roger Ebert's Four Star Reviews--1967-2007
Create image

“Crowds can be frightening. They have a way of impressing the low, base taste upon their members. Watching the way thousands of people in his audience could not think for themselves, could not find the courage to allow their ordinary feelings of decency and taste to prevail, I understood better how demagogues are possible.”

PeopleThinkingWayFeelingsAudienceTasteMembersLowsOrdinaryUnderstoodCrowdsFrighteningImpressDecency
Book:I Hated, Hated, Hated This Movie
Create image

“It considers not only how we relate to others, but how we relate to our ideas of others so that a completely phony, non-human replica of a dead wife can inspire the same feelings that the wife herself once did. That is a peculiarity of humans: 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. Our idea of humanity bewitches us, while humanity itself stays safely sealed away into its billions of separate containers, or "people.”

PeopleWorldFeelsHumansBookIdeasRealFeelingsHumanityFallReadingStarsEmotionWifeCryInspireFalling In LoveBillionsRelateReal WorldMovie StarPhonyContainersReplica
Book:Roger Ebert's Movie Yearbook 2005
Create image

“One of the most sublime and hazardous moments in human experience comes when two people lock eyes and realize that they are sexually attracted to one another. They may not act on the knowledge.They may file it away for future reference. They may deny it. They may never see each other again. But the moment has happened, and for an instant all other considerations are insignificant.”

PeopleHumansMayTwoMomentsEyeRealizingHappenedDenyInstantConsiderationLocksSublimeInsignificantHuman ExperienceFilesSexually
Book:Roger Ebert's Four Star Reviews--1967-2007
Create image

“When I write a political column for the Chicago Sun-Times, when liberals disagree with me, they send in long, logical e-mails explaining all my errors. I hardly ever get well-reasoned articles from the right. People just tell me to shut up. That's the message: "Shut up. Don't write anymore about this. Who do you think you are?"”

PeopleThinkingWritingWellsLongPoliticalSunMessagesErrorsLogicalChicagoDisagreeArticlesMailShut UpExplainingColumnsGet Well
Author:Roger Ebert
Create image

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

PeopleThinkingWayTwoIdeasMightActionStarsWhiteHappeningsAfrican AmericanAsianAction MovieAsian AmericanSidekicks
Author:Roger Ebert
Create image

“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. But if you go to foreign films, if you go to documentaries, if you go to independent films, if you go to good films, you will become a better person because you will understand human nature better. Movies record human nature in a better way than any other art form, that's for sure.”

PeopleIfsWayNeedsHumansPersonsArtActionFilmFormDesireRecordsHuman NatureIndependentNobleDocumentariesBetter WaysBetter PersonIndependent FilmGood Films
Author:Roger Ebert
Create image

“To know me is to love me. This cliche is popular for a reason, because most of us, I imagine, believe deep in our hearts that if anyone truly got to know us, they'd truly get to love us - or at least know why we're the way we are. The problem in life, maybe the central problem, is that so few people ever seem to have sufficient curiosity to do the job on us that we know we deserve.”

PeopleIfsKnowsWayLifeBelieveHeartReasonProblemSeemsJobsImagineDeserveCuriositySufficientKnow MeClicheProblems In Life
Author:Roger Ebert
Create image

“I was indeed a snob, if you agree with this definition: 'A person who believes that their tastes in a particular area are superior to those of other people.' I do believe that. Not superior to all other people, but to some, most probably including those who think Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen is a great film. That is not simply ego on my part. It is a faith that after writing and teaching about films for more than 40 years, my tastes are more evolved than those of a fanboy.”

PeopleIfsThinkingWritingYearsBelievePersonsFilmTeachingParticularTasteEgoAreasAgreeIncludingDefinitionsRevengeSuperiorsFallenSnobGreat Film
Author:Roger Ebert
Create image

“When we go to the movies, we identify with the characters we see. That's why we go to the movies; we have a voyeuristic experience; we have an out of the body experience. The screen is more real than our thoughts are at the moment we are looking at the film and we place ourselves in the place of the people on the screen, and when they behave nobly, it makes us feel noble, when they are sad and when they have lost love, we feel sad; we can identify with that.”

PeopleFeelsRealMomentsCharacterBodyFilmLostNobleScreensBehaveLost LoveOur Thoughts
Author:Roger Ebert
Create image

“[Alan Berg's] memory haunts many people, even those who never heard him on the radio, because his death could be read as a message: Be cautious, be prudent, be bland, never push anybody, never say what you really think, offer yourself as a hostage to the weirdos even before they make the first move. These days, a lot of people are opposed to the newfound popularity of 'trash television,' and no doubt they are right, and the hosts of these shows are shameless controversy-mongers. But at least they are not intimidated. Of what use is freedom of speech to those who fear to offend?”

PeopleThinkingFirstsUseShowsMovingMemoriesDoubtHeardTelevisionOffersSpeechMessagesRadioThese DaysNo DoubtHostFreedom Of SpeechPopularityControversyTrashCautiousIntimidatedPrudentHostageShamelessWeirdoBlandBe Cautious
Author:Roger Ebert
Create image

“We all are born with a certain package. We are who we are: where we were born, who we were born as, how we were raised. We're kind of stuck inside that person, and the purpose of civilization and growth is to be able to reach out and empathize a little bit with other people. And for me, the movies are like a machine that generates empathy. It lets you understand a little bit more about different hopes, aspirations, dreams and fears. It helps us to identify with the people who are sharing this journey with us.”

PeopleKindLittlesPersonsDifferentHelpingDreamAblePurposeCertainBitsGrowthBornJourneyCivilizationLittle BitEmpathyMachinesRaisedStuckAspirationWho We AreReach OutPackages
Author:Roger Ebert
Create image

“I am as fond of colorful language as anyone, but I try not to inflict it upon strangers. I suspect many people sense they should have better manners, and need only a nudge. In high school, I was addressed for the first time in my life as "Mister Ebert" by Stanley Hynes, an English teacher, and his formality transformed his classroom into a place where a certain courtliness prevailed.”

PeopleLifeNeedsShouldTryingFirstsSchoolCertainLanguageTeacherAdviceHigh SchoolFirst TimeShould HaveStrangerMannersSuspectsTransformedClassroomColorfulStanleyNudgeEnglish TeacherFormality
Author:Roger Ebert
Create image