Roger Ebert spent 31 years on TV, highlighting the day's movies in a way that was accessible for the audience, simultaneously informational and entertaining to watch.

Thanks to his passionate sparring with his fellow on-camera critic, the Chicago Tribune's Gene Siskel, Ebert's renown spread beyond the text of his reviews and right into pop culture history. The thumbs up, thumbs down approach is familiar even to those who don't know where the saying comes from.

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Roger Ebert was a prodigious Twitter user, so it seemed fitting that on Thursday tributes began pouring in to the micro-blogging site once word of his death was announced.

Here are just a few of the tweets:

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Roger Ebert died on Thursday, just days after revealing that cancer had returned to his body, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

On Tuesday, the 70-year-old Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic wrote on his blog that he planned to “slow down” and take “a leave of presence.”

“What in the world is a leave of presence?” he continued. “It means I am not going away. My intent is to continue to write selected reviews but to leave the rest to a talented team of writers handpicked and greatly admired by me.”

Ebert is survived by his family and his words:

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