Top 300 Roger Ebert Quotes (2024 Update)
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51. “As a child I simply did not notice whether a movie was in color or not. The movies themselves were such an overwhelming mystery that if they wanted to be in black and white, that was their business.”

— Roger Ebert

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

— Roger Ebert

53. “I do suspect my star ratings average too high. But, of course, star ratings are ridiculous. I’m stuck with them.”

— Roger Ebert

54. “Because of the rush of human knowledge, because of the digital revolution, I have a voice, and I do not need to scream.”

— Roger Ebert

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

— Roger Ebert

56. “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.”

— Roger Ebert

57. “The very fact of snow is such an amazement.”

— Roger Ebert

58. “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

59. “I will one day be thin, but Vincent Gallo will always be the director of The Brown Bunny.”

— Roger Ebert

60. “We are the playthings of the gods.”

— Roger Ebert

61. “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.”

— Roger Ebert

62. “I believe empathy is the most essential quality of civilization.”

— Roger Ebert

63. “Nothing ever seems straightforward in Venice, least of all its romances.”

— Roger Ebert

64. “If you have to ask what it symbolizes, it didn’t.”

— Roger Ebert

65. “There’s nothing like impending death to rouse you from existential boredom.”

— Roger Ebert

66. “Praise without merit is more harmful than unearned criticism.”

— Roger Ebert

67. “Jacques Tati is the great philosophical tinkerer of comedy, taking meticulous care to arrange his films so that they unfold in a series of revelations and effortless delights.”

— Roger Ebert

68. “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

69. “Show me a sexual practice that involves ice cubes and hot sauce, and I will show you a sexual practice that would be improved without them.”

— Roger Ebert

70. “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

71. “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. I hope to be spared as much pain as possible on the approach path. I was perfectly content before I was born, and I think of death as the same state.”

— Roger Ebert

72. “I value the kind of prayer when you stand at the edge of the sea, or beneath a tree, or smell a flower, or love someone, or do a good thing. Those prayers validate existence and snatch it away from meaningless routine.”

— Roger Ebert

73. “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

74. “Someone once said the fundamental reason we get married is because have a universal human need for a witness.”

— Roger Ebert

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

— Roger Ebert

76. “Nobody looks perfect. We have to find peace with the way we look and get on with life.”

— Roger Ebert

77. “There is a movie called Fargo playing right now. It is a masterpiece. Go see it. If you, under any circumstances, see Little Indian, Big City, I will never let you read one of my reviews again.”

— Roger Ebert

78. “The movie Ed Wood, about the worst director of all time, was made to prepare us for Stargate.”

— Roger Ebert

79. “Many people believe the names of In ’n Out and Steak ’n Shake perfectly describe the contrast in bedroom techniques between the coast and the heartland.”

— Roger Ebert

80. “Catholic theology believes that God gave man free will, and you can’t give somebody free will and then send in a play from the sidelines.”

— Roger Ebert

81. “Rollerball is an incoherent mess, a jumble of footage in search of plot, meaning, rhythm and sense. There are bright colors and quick movement on the screen, which we can watch as a visual pattern that, in entertainment value, falls somewhere between a kaleidoscope and a lava lamp.”

— Roger Ebert

82. “We must try to contribute joy to the world.”

— Roger Ebert

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

— Roger Ebert

84. “So on this day of reflection I say again, thank you for going on this journey with me. I’ll see you at the movies.”

— Roger Ebert

85. “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.”

— Roger Ebert

86. “The film argues to the young that the old were young once, too, and contain within them all that the young know, and more.”

— Roger Ebert

87. “The Last Airbender is an agonizing experience in every category I can think of and others still waiting to be invented. The laws of chance suggest that something should have gone right. Not here. It puts a nail in the coffin of low-rent 3D, but it will need a lot more coffins than that.”

— Roger Ebert

88. “The time in between my clapping is ma. If you just have non-stop action with no breathing space at all, it’s just busyness, But if you take a moment, then the tension building in the film can grow into a wider dimension. If you just have constant tension at 80 degrees all the time you just get numb.”

— Roger Ebert

89. “If you want to save yourself the ticket price, go into the kitchen, cue up a male choir singing the music of hell, and get a kid to start banging pots and pans together. Then close your eyes and use your imagination.”

— Roger Ebert

90. “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.”

— Roger Ebert

91. “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

92. “Jane Austen wrote six of the most beloved novels in the English language, we are informed at the end of Becoming Jane, and so she did. The key word is beloved. Her admirers do not analyze her books so much as they just plain love them to pieces.”

— Roger Ebert

93. “It is all very well and good for Linda Lovelace, the star of the movie, to advocate sexual freedom; but the energy she brings to her role is less awesome than discouraging. If you have to work this hard at sexual freedom, maybe it isn’t worth the effort.”

— Roger Ebert

94. “An actress should never, ever, be asked to run beside a van in red disco boots for more than about half a block, and then only if her child is being kidnapped.”

— Roger Ebert

95. “It is human nature to look away from illness. We don’t enjoy a reminder of our own fragile mortality.”

— Roger Ebert

96. “One hopeful sign that the filmmakers can learn and grow is that the sequel does not contain a single pie, if you know what I mean.”

— Roger Ebert

97. “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

98. “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

99. “A man goes to the movies. The critic must admit that he is this man.”

— Roger Ebert

100. “If you pay attention to the movies they will tell you what people desire and fear. Movies are hardly ever about what they seem to be about. Look at a movie that a lot of people love, and you will find something profound, no matter how silly the film may be.”

— Roger Ebert