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."

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.

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.

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.

It is in opposing the world’s lies that we impose truth in our hearts.

The silent bear no witness against themselves.

A good day is a good day. A bad day is a good story.

My former health minister, Kamran Bagheri Lankarani, is like a peach. I love to eat him.

There are basically two types of people. People who accomplish things, and people who claim to have accomplished things. The first group is less crowded.

I love you all very; very much and I shall never, ever forget you, I promise.

The image of all the cars leaving pastel-colored people at the same time has never really left me as an anti-ambition for life!

I feel SF is going through an experimental phase right now.

Empower the people around you, from the janitor to the athletic director. You do that by being sincere, caring about others, and then putting it into practice.

There are all kinds of writers and all kinds of methods, and any method that helps you to say what you want to say is the right method for you.