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41 " 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. "
― Roger Ebert
42 " Doing research on the Web is like using a library assembled piecemeal by pack rats and vandalized nightly. "
43 " We are put on this planet only once, and to limit ourselves to the familiar is a crime against our minds. "
44 " Socrates told us, "the unexamined life is not worth living." I think he's calling for curiosity, more than knowledge. In every human society at all times and at all levels, the curious are at the leading edge. "
45 " 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. "
― Roger Ebert , Life Itself
46 " The Muse visits during the process of creation, not before. "
47 " Because we are human, because we are bound by gravity and the limitations of our bodies, because we live in a world where the news is often bad and the prospects disturbing, there is a need for another world somewhere, a world where Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers live. "
― Roger Ebert , The Great Movies III
48 " 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. "
― Roger Ebert , A Horrible Experience of Unbearable Length: More Movies That Suck
49 " I began to realize that I had tended to avoid some people because of my instant conclusions about who they were and what they would have to say. I discovered that everyone, speaking honestly and openly, had important things to tell me. "
50 " 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. "
51 " Of what use is freedom of speech to those who fear to offend? "
52 " Nicholas Sparks recently went on record as saying he is a greater novelist than Cormac McCarthy. This is true in the same sense that I am a better novelist than William Shakespeare. "
53 " 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. "
54 " 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. "
55 " EVERY TIME I see a dog in a movie, I think the same thing: I want that dog. I see Skip or Lucy or Shiloh and for a moment I can’t even think about the movie’s plot. I can only think about the dog. I want to hold it, pet it, take it for walks, and tell it what a good dog it is. I want to love it, and I want it to love me. I have an empty space inside myself that can only be filled by a dog. "
56 " The very fact of snow is such an amazement. "
57 " Start. Don’t look back. If at the end it doesn’t meet your hopes, start again. Now you know more about your hopes. "
58 " It is said that the human brain divides its functions. The right brain is devoted to sensory impressions, emotions, colors, music. The left brain deals with abstract thought, logic, philosophy, analysis.My definition of a great movie: While you’re watching it, it engages your right brain. When it’s over, it engages your left brain. "
59 " Of all the arts, movies are the most powerful aid to empathy, and good ones make us into better people. "
― Roger Ebert , The Great Movies
60 " We are poor mortals, but it dreams to us that we can fly. "