Roger Ebert Quotes (53 Quotes)

Well, you know, a lot of modern directors and their movies are influenced by the flat lighting and textbook cutting style of television.

Movies absorb our attention more completely, I think.

A lot of people didn't have sex in high school in the 1950s, ... My favorite actors include Robert Mitchum and Clint Eastwood . They don't look anything like me.

I've been told that I am evil. I've been told that I am behind the persecution of millions of Americans. That I have encouraged hate toward gays. I've received both very brief and obscene messages, and very long and literate messages that tell me a vote for Crash was vote for homophobia.

Oh, here comes Mel Blanc, the voice of Bugs Bunny and Jimmy Smits Announcing the arrival of Mel Blanc and Jimmy Smits to the Academy Awards ceremony.

But the fact is, most people are not going to be rich someday.

The secret of the movie is that it doesn't strain to draw parallels with current world events - because it doesn't have to.

The Academy is paranoid about its image.

Gene was a lifelong friend and our professional competition only strengthened that bond, ... He showed great bravery in the months after his surgery, continuing to work as long as he could.

By going to the movies, and because of other things, too, going to college, making a wide variety of friends, moving around traveling, I became a lot more open-minded than the heritage I was born into might have suggested.

I'm kind of glad the web is sort of totally anarchic. That's fine with me.

I don't think he's an a-, ... But if he's going to persist in making bad movies, he's going to have to grow accustomed to reading bad reviews.

I'll tell you, I think that the Internet has provided an enormous boost to film criticism by giving people an opportunity to self publish or to find sites that are friendly.

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.

There was a bedrock of respect that developed over the years,

And I think both the left and the right should celebrate people who have different opinions, and disagree with them, and argue with them, and differ with them, but don't just try to shut them up.

Well, you know what, I'm 60 years old, and I've been interested in politics since I was on my daddy's knee. During the 1948 election, we were praying for Truman. I know a lot about politics.

I don't think Bush was legitimately elected President.

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.

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.

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.

Class is often invisible in America in the movies, and usually not the subject of the film.

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

The reason (Burton) wanted to make 'Ed Wood' is that Ed Wood had so much fun making movies. And that's where Ed Wood and Tim Burton connect. Tim Burton makes films that are a lot better, but he doesn't make them with any more love.

The early years were pretty rocky, there were a lot of fights, a lot of disagreements, some edginess, ... Gradually, I think, we came to really enjoy doing this show and really respect the other guy. In recent years there was a great deal of affection and friendship.

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.

We don't have a lot of class-conscious filmmaking.

We had lots of big fights, ... We were people who came together one day a week to work together and the other six days of the week we were competitors on two daily newspapers and two different television stations. So there was a lot of competition and a lot of disagreement.

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 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.

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

If Hollywood stars speak out, so do all sorts of other people. Now Hollywood stars can get a better hearing.

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.

The target audience didn't care that we hated those movies because they just expected us to hate them.

What am I to think when six weekends of this year already have been won by slasher movies that were not screened for critics and got bad ratings on the tomato meter when they were screened

The prevailing style in the mainstream is represented by Michael Bay. This is shorter and shorter takes and less and less dialogue.

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

Because I don't give the studios advanced quotes or an advanced look at my reviews. I think the readers deserve to read my reviews before the studios do.

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

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.

All over the web there are some very good critics and it's become for people who are interested. It's become a very good way to get to reviews and involve yourself in discussions.

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

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.

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

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

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.

The problem with being sure that God is on your side is that you can't change your mind, because God sure isn't going to change His.

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.

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