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Words of Wisdom — January 9, 2015

Roger Ebert: A Depressing Number of People Take Things Too Literally

“A depressing number of people seem to process everything literally. They are to wit as a blind man is to a forest, able to find every tree, but each one coming as a surprise.”

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Roger Ebert (1942-2013) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic, as well as an author, journalist, and screenwriter. He was film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times for 46 years, his reviews syndicated to more than 200 newspapers worldwide. Despite living with thyroid and salivary gland cancer for the final 11 years of his life (and losing his ability to speak), Ebert continued writing and publishing up to his death in April 2013.

“A depressing number of people seem to process everything literally. They are to wit as a blind man is to a forest, able to find every tree, but each one coming as a surprise.”

Source: “Movie Answer Man” column (18 September 2005) (via Wikiquote)

Photo credit: “Roger Ebert cropped” by Sound Opinions – Flickr: Roger Ebert. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

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