I don't think you make documentary films to get your country house. If you're trying to gamble on that, you've very foolish.

Bobby Fischer was hugely important for the American chess community because it put chess on the map - he made it possible for other chess players to make a living.

Every film I make I feel like I am getting a mini-masters degree, it's a wonderful life path and you get to immerse yourself in an intriguing world for a couple of years.

I guess what I get excited about when I'm thinking about projects is that toothy, complex area of goodness and badness and the gray areas of human behavior and existence.

When your entire life is focused around one goal and one goal only, and you have no other pursuits, it enables you to achieve enormous mastery.

Each project draws you in on its own merits as opposed to an intellectual choice of, "Well, I'm going to shift from vérité filmmaking to more archival."

I think the combination of genius and celebrity, in the case of Bobby Fischer, was a dangerous cocktail.

In the Soviet Union, for instance, the pressure on the chess stars was immense. When Boris Spassky came home after losing that match, he found he no longer had an apartment in Moscow.

If you look at the gifted sportsman, like Tiger Woods, or Ryan Giggs, you can see how they have been built up to be so much more than one person could ever be.

If you're going to sit on someone's tombstone, you might as well know something about them, right?

With the rise of self- awareness, all separatisms cease to exist - all delusions cease to exist.

The world is Absolutely Brilliant. Difficult sometimes. Confusing often. But humorous almost always.

Lately I did a film called All I Want for Christmas and it was well received. This gave me a new point of view and a new respect for my work as an actress.

I've done a lot of bad things. Use your imagination.

When I'm not working, my family and I have a house in the San Juan Islands. We've been here since '94.

It's easy to stand up and say I will destroy ISIS; I will make the sands in the Middle East glow in the dark. Well, that's fine, but you have to have something to do that with.

You can't totally rebel, otherwise you have to go live on your own, on a desert island. It's as simple as that.

[when asked about what he was most thankful about]: Being alive. After heart surgery, you dig that part. Breath, family and friends are just amazing. Just to have a second shot is pretty great!

The bad blood rose in me, just like wine.