Roger Ebert popularized film criticism by writing accessible prose and respecting the professional demands of a critic. While he influenced countless people to fall in love cinema, other renowned critics and writers influenced his work. In his memoir Life Itself, Ebert shares pivotal lessons that shaped his life. Here are three that defined his career.

• Patience is not always a virtue.

“The Muse visits during the act of creation, not before. Don’t wait for her, start alone.” This is Ebert’s more elegant take on writing advice he received from Bill Lyons, a colleague of his at the News-Gazette. He said, “One, don’t wait for inspiration, just start the damn 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?” Ebert seemed to have adopted Lyons’s methodology, as many of colleagues and friends in the documentary Life Itself cited his ability to start writing a review directly after seeing a film. No time for rumination or procrastination in the reviewing business.

• Respect the reader’s time.

I started reading Ebert’s reviews at the age of nine or ten. At the time, I didn’t know difference between a tracking shot and a zoom shot, nor between diegetic and non-diegetic film. Luckily, I didn’t have to because Ebert made an effort to steer clear from complicated film terminology. There are ways to inform a reader about the essence of a film without requiring them to do supplementary research. Surprisingly, Ebert cites a legend far removed from the film business for teaching him this lesson- Louis Armstrong. In reference to Jazz, he preached, “Some folks they know, and the others you can’t tell em.”

• Film critics must avoid trailers.

Seeing a trailer will taint the experience of watching a movie for the first time. Always. Ebert inherited the distaste for trailers from his longtime partner in crime, Gene Siskel, who would wait outside during the trailers before a movie. He learned this lesson from a fellow critic, and included it in his rulebook for other fellow critics. Spread the love Roger.