CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- Film critic Roger Ebert, who is battling cancer in a Chicago hospital, says he looks forward to coming back to work despite a hard road to recovery.

"I don't have a crystal ball, so I can't tell you when, but I sure look forward to being back on the movie beat," he said in a statement Thursday.

Ebert, famous for his "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" critiques, had surgery June 16 to remove a cancerous growth on his salivary gland. He also had emergency surgery July 1 after a blood vessel burst near the site of the operation.

The 64-year-old had undergone cancer surgery three times before the June operation -- once in 2002 to remove a malignant tumor on his thyroid gland and twice on his salivary gland the next year.

Ebert said in the statement his voice has been affected by the cancer treatment and part of his overall rehabilitation will include having to strengthen his vocal cords. He added that "doctors are moving cautiously, but they are enthusiastically optimistic about my recovery."

Ebert has been a film critic at the Chicago Sun-Times since 1967. He won the Pulitzer Prize for criticism in 1975, the same year he teamed up with Gene Siskel of the rival Chicago Tribune to launch their movie-review show. Siskel died in 1999. Ebert has co-hosted the show with fellow Sun-Times columnist Richard Roeper since 2000.

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