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.

More from Roger Ebert

• Doing research on the Web is like using a library assembled piecemeal by pack rats and vandalized nightly.
• For 40 years, I didn’t miss a single deadline, but since July, I have missed every one. I also, to my intense disappointment, missed the Telluride and Toronto film festivals. Having just written my first review since June (The Queen), I think an update is in order.
• I believe empathy is the most essential quality of civilization.
• I lost faith in the Oscars the first year I was a movie critic — the year that Bonnie and Clyde didn’t win.
• I must slow down now, which is why I’m taking what I like to call “a leave of presence.”
• It is human nature to look away from illness. We don’t enjoy a reminder of our own fragile mortality. That’s why writing on the Internet has become a life-saver for me. My ability to think and write have not been affected. And on the Web, my real voice finds expression.