I felt like the universe was tapping me on the shoulder saying, "You're the guy who has to tell this story because nobody else is."

Life is much more complex than the black-and-white sound bites that you get on television. There are nuances and shades of gray.

You have to remain open to the situation that you're filming otherwise you might miss the story.

What you hope, what you're trusting the filmmaker to do, is to capture the emotional truth of the situation.

If people spend two hours thinking about the direction of their own lives and can relate to the stories they see on screen, to me that's a success.

Any documentary; any capturing of a non-fiction event, is a hyper-realistic condensation of reality that hopefully reveals an emotional truth. It's never the actual literal truth of an event.

I'm a filmmaker who is known for these ambiguous portraits that tell multiple sides of the story without really telling the audience what to think.

The filmmaker is not telling you what to think.

If a concert film is an experience of the musicianship without critiquing it, then this, too, is dropping you into a world and letting you experience it.

I'm an observer in life, not a participant. That's why I'm a documentarian who looks through a camera. I'm not a touchy-feely person; I'm not a seminar person.

The world is watching, and you better be fair.

How things change, ’ I say, ‘how strange that, even when all is lost, we can still find beauty in simple things.

You can't live life being second best.

There was so much to learn and it was all fun. But the best part was getting a laugh from an audience. That was like drowning in candy.

But some emotions don't make a lot of noise. It's hard to hear pride. Caring is real faint - like a heartbeat. And pure love why some days it's so quiet you don't even know it's there.

We just keep trying to beat every show with the funny stick until it's funny

Improving your process won't move you from good to great design. It'll move you from bad to average.

The sad dislike those who are cheerful, and the cheerful dislike the melancholy.

I fooled some of the most brilliant people in journalism.

I prioritize people. This grounds me and reminds me of my place in the world.

I write with a pen and paper. Never on a laptop.