The world is watching, and you better be fair.

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.

A girl is a soul at sunrise.

The ability to express an idea is well nigh as important as the idea itself.

Some girls barely speak, but always askin' for a dollar.

There is nothing like widespread poverty to boost a country's equality index.

Living in different cultures helped me work out who I was going to be, separate from where I came from.

Heaven's Way gives no favors. It always remains with good people.

It is a capital blunder; as you discover, when another man recites his charities.

If the defender is forced to give up the center, then every possible attack follows almost of itself.

Jesus is not a good way to heaven, nor even the best way. He is the only way to heaven.

You know what I miss? More than anything? Coffee. -- Plutarch Heavensbee