I find that when I am actually writing, I enter a zone of concentration too small to admit my troubles. Roger Ebert More Quotes by Roger Ebert More Quotes From Roger Ebert There are few lonelier sights than a good comedian being funny in a movie that doesn't know what funny is. Roger Ebert comedian sight knows We can't help identifying with the protagonist. It's coded in our movie-going DNA. Roger Ebert protagonists dna helping It is an interesting law of romance that a truly strong woman will choose a strong man who disagrees with her over a weak one who goes along. Strength demands intelligence, intelligence demands stimulation, and weakness is boring. It is better to find a partner you can contend with for a lifetime than one who accommodates you because he doesn't really care. Roger Ebert strong-women law interesting Teaching prejudice to a child is itself a form of bullying. You've got to be taught to hate. Roger Ebert bullying hate children We must try to contribute joy to the world. That is true no matter what our problems, our health, our circumstances. We must try. Roger Ebert joy trying world Art is the closest we can come to understanding how a stranger really feels. Roger Ebert stranger understanding art Doing research on the Web is like using a library assembled piecemeal by pack rats and vandalized nightly. Roger Ebert library-research rats reading While I am usually in despair when a movie abandons its plot for a third act given over entirely to action, I have no problem with the way Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets ends, because it has been pointing toward this ending, hinting about it, preparing us for it, all the way through. What a glorious movie. Roger Ebert despair plot secret This sucks on so many levels." Dialogue from "Jason X" Rare for a movie to so frankly describe itself. "Jason X" sucks on the levels of storytelling, character development, suspense, special effects, originality, punctuation, neatness and aptness of thought. Roger Ebert jason special character 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. Roger Ebert realizing important people [D]oes the real world have any more substance than visions and hallucinations when we're having them? At any given moment, what's happening in our minds is all and everything that happens. Roger Ebert vision real mind The movie cheerfully offends all civilized notions of taste, decorum, manners and hygiene... The movie is vulgar? Vulgarity is when we don't laugh. When we laugh, it's merely human nature. Roger Ebert vulgarity-is hygiene laughing Movies are not about moving, but about whether to move. Roger Ebert moving 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. Roger Ebert good-questions reason might 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. Roger Ebert curiosity calling thinking Many thrillers follow such reliable formulas that you can look at what's happening and guess how much longer a film has to run. Roger Ebert film running looks Yes, I was fat, but I dealt with it by simply never thinking about it. It is useful, when you are fat, to have a lot of other things to think about. Roger Ebert fats beauty thinking It is human nature to look away from illness. We don't enjoy a reminder of our own fragile mortality. Roger Ebert human-nature wisdom looks Sometimes, it's all about the casting. Roger Ebert casting sometimes 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. Roger Ebert teaching giving people