Quote #107

Writing daily film criticism is a balancing act between the bottom line and the higher reaches, between the answers to the questions, (1) Is this movie worth my money?, and (2) Does this movie expand or devalue my information about human nature? Critics who write so everybody can understand everything are actually engaging in a kind of ventriloquism - working as their own dummies. They are pretending to know less than they do. But critics who write for other critics are hardly more honest, since they are sending a message to millions that only hundreds will understand. It's a waste of postage.

More from Roger Ebert

  1. Two Thumbs Up!
  2. Your intellect may be confused, but your emotions will never lie to you.
  3. Thrillers don't exist in a plausible universe. They consist of preposterous situations survived by skill, courage, craft and luck.
  4. Roger Ebert is a national treasure. He is the most recognizable and well known movie critic. He has been my favorite writer for some time n…
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  6. Through his boorish, knee-jerk leftism, Ebert has become merely another Hollywood elitist thumbing his nose at America. Two thumbs down.
  7. There are few issues in the area of film preservation that arouse more anger than the issue of colorization. That is because it is an issue…
  8. Nobody has been more important in telling Americans why we should love film than Roger Ebert.

All Roger Ebert quotes