Life Itself Quotes

“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

“All I require of a religion is that it be tolerant of those who do not agree with it.”
― Roger Ebert, Life Itself

“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.”
― Roger Ebert, Life Itself

“A corner is important. It provides privacy and an anchor and lets you exist independently of the room.”
― Roger Ebert, Life Itself

“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.”
― Roger Ebert, Life Itself

“One, don’t wait for inspiration, just start the damned thing. Two, once you begin, keep on until the end. How do you know how the story should begin until you find out where it’s going?”
― Roger Ebert, Life Itself

“In Dallas for the premier of '9 to 5', I had an uncanny experience, and on the plane home to Chicago I confessed it to Siskel: I had been granted a private half hour with Dolly Parton, and as we spoke I was filled with a strange ethereal grace. This was not spiritual, nor was it sexual. It was healing and comforting. Gene listened and said, "Roger, I felt the exact same thing during my interview with her." We looked at each other. What did this mean? Neither one of us ever felt that feeling again. From time to time we would refer to it in wonder.”
― Roger Ebert, Life Itself

“I believe that if, at the end, according to our abilities, we have done something to make others a little happier, and something to make ourselves a little happier, that is about the best we can do. 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. I didn't always know this, and am happy I lived long enough to find it out.”
― Roger Ebert, Life Itself

“When you're young you don't realize that at every age you are always in the present, and in that sense no older;”
― Roger Ebert, Life Itself

“Dogs remember every favor you ever do for them and store those events in a memory bank titled Why My Human Is A God.”
― Roger Ebert, Life Itself

“you are never warmer than when you have been cold.”
― Roger Ebert, Life Itself

“When I write, I fall into the zone many writers, painters, musicians, athletes, and craftsmen of all sorts seem to share: In doing something I enjoy and am expert at, deliberate thought falls aside and it is all just THERE. I think of the next word no more than the composer thinks of the next note.”
― Roger Ebert, Life Itself

“There must be something deep within our memory as a species that is pleased by being able to look at what is making us warm.”
― Roger Ebert, Life Itself

“I have been here before, I am here now, I will be here again.”
― Roger Ebert, Life Itself

“If I were on death row, my last meal would be from Steak ’n Shake. If I were to take President Obama and his family to dinner and the choice was up to me, it would be Steak ’n Shake. If the pope was to ask where he could get a good plate of spaghetti in America, I would reply, “Your Holiness, have you tried the Chili Mac or the Chili 3-Ways?” A downstate Illinois boy loves the Steak ’n Shake as a Puerto Rican loves rice and beans, an Egyptian loves falafel, a Brit loves bangers and mash, a Finn loves reindeer jerky, and a Canadian loves doughnuts. This doesn’t involve taste. It involves a deep-seated conviction that a food is right, has always been right, and always will be.”
― Roger Ebert, Life Itself

“That's how I gained a lifelong fondness for repeating certain phrases beyond the point of all reason.”
― Roger Ebert, Life Itself

“They give you a smaller glass so it feels like you’re getting more,”
― Roger Ebert, Life Itself

“So much of what happens by chance forms what becomes of your life….I suppose I must be grateful, for I seem to have been headed this way all along.”
― Roger Ebert, Life Itself

“You can't say it wasn't interesting.”
― Roger Ebert, Life Itself

“I may appear to suffer from some sort of compulsive repetition syndrome, but these rituals are important to me. I have many places where I sit and think, “I have been here before, I am here now, and I will be here again.” Sometimes, lost in reverie, I remember myself approaching across the same green, or down the same footpath, in 1962 or 1983, or many other times. Sometimes Chaz comes along on my rituals, but just as often I go alone. Sometimes Chaz will say she’s going shopping, or visiting a friend, or just staying in the room and reading in bed. “Why don’t you go and touch your bases?” she’ll ask me. I know she sympathizes. These secret visits are a way for me to measure the wheel of the years and my passage through life. Sometimes on this voyage through life we need to sit on the deck and regard the waves.”
― Roger Ebert, Life Itself

“Steak ’n Shake!”
― Roger Ebert, Life Itself

“I am not a believer, not an atheist, not an agnostic. I am more content with questions than answers.”
― Roger Ebert, Life Itself

“if you don’t flush out the pipes, they’ll run brown.”
― Roger Ebert, Life Itself

“The Toys of a Lifetime”
― Roger Ebert, Life Itself

“As the man says in the play, for this relief, much thanks.”
― Roger Ebert, Life Itself

“because an American can have a double-barreled last name but there is little practice for a triple-barreled one.”
― Roger Ebert, Life Itself

“We piled into the back of his big red Sun-Times truck: Robertson, McHugh, a bagpipe player, assorted other regulars, and Good Sydney Harris. Good Sydney Harris was a Spanish Civil War veteran, not to be confused with the Bad Sydney Harris, the Daily News columnist. Good Sydney had fallen into conversation with a dominatrix named Jake, who joined us.”
― Roger Ebert, Life Itself

“and the sexes eyeing each other uneasily, for nothing is easier for a teenager to imagine than rejection.”
― Roger Ebert, Life Itself

“To make others less happy is a crime. To make ourselves unhappy is where all crime starts.”
― Roger Ebert, Life Itself

“oxytocin.”
― Roger Ebert, Life Itself