I've never had access to another person's art and work or, particularly, someone who is as prolific and was able to externalize his interior world as deeply as Kurt [Cobain] could.

I try and make non-fiction films that feel like fiction, so I'm always looking for the subtext and that's what really excites me.

Sometimes, you chase the moment and you can never catch it. Films take so long to make that you can never anticipate what the cultural landscape will be when the film enters the world.

When I grew up, we had no babysitters and nobody every observed us. People don't parent like that today. They're very hands-on; kids are constantly being supervised.

Oftentimes when people make movies about the '80s, they go back and look at '80s films, [but] those look nothing like the '80s. It's some watered-down version of reality.

The only people who really love the '80s are millennials. We had Reagan and Bush for our entire youth, the culture was terrible, the fashions were terrible, the movies were terrible.

You have Kurt [Cobain], and he's singing about your experiences. They're our collective experiences.

Everybody feels protective and possessive about Kurt [Cobain] , and I think that can be attributed to his unique gift, an ability to touch our lives, and make us feel like he's our friend.

You can't divorce yourself from your own life experiences.

I never met Kurt Cobain, but I felt like I got to know him in a manner probably more intimate than anyone I've known outside of my family.

Kurt [Cobain ]was a feminist. A lot of the bashing against Courtney [Love] I think has to deal with gender bias and the media, and I think that he liked that she was taking the attention off of him.

In the end, having no compass for his desires, he yielded to his nature.

[A dog is] a bundle of pure love, gift-wrapped in fur.

If the facts are against you, argue the law. If the law is against you, argue the facts. If the law and the facts are against you, pound the table and yell like hell

It's not art for art's sake, it's art for my sake.

If it isn't a clear yes, then it's a clear no.

If a man sets out to study all the laws, he will have no time left to transgress them.

It is true that we are made of dust. And the world is also made of dust. But the dust has motes rising.

Whenever one has anything unpleasant to say, one should always be quite candid.

I'm just thinking too fast-- much too fast.

There are silver ships There are gold ships, But there are no ships Like friendships.