'I was perfectly content before I was born'

Chris Jones has penned the most incredibly raw, no-holds barred profile of Roger Ebert. After cancer surgeries removed his thyroid, salivary glands and most of his lower jaw, Ebert suffered through several disastrous attempts to rebuild his jaw and is refusing further surgery. He's still reviewing films, though, and living his life on his own terms. He just isn't holding anything back these days.

Ebert is dying in increments, and he is aware of it, says Jones. And follows with this most amazing quote: "I know it is coming, and I do not fear it, because I believe there is nothing on the other side of death to fear," he writes in a journal entry titled Go Gently into That Good Night. "I hope to be spared as much pain as possible on the approach path. I was perfectly content before I was born, and I think of death as the same state. What I am grateful for is the gift of intelligence, and for life, love, wonder, and laughter. You can't say it wasn't interesting. My lifetime's memories are what I have brought home from the trip. I will require them for eternity no more than that little souvenir of the Eiffel Tower I brought home from Paris."

Read the entire profile here: http://bit.ly/cfbvy9