Morgan Neville Quotes

I'm not trying to acquire a reputation as serious documentary maker for its own sake.

My artist career failed pretty miserably multiple times.

Many people have this memory of traditional TV documentary-making that aims to portray pure reality, and I just don't see that as the only option.

The thing about documentary is that you don't really choose your subjects: they come and grab you out of your bed.

One of the reasons to do documentaries is that. There's more sense of creating something, more sense of my own soul in the documentaries than in movies, because I don't write the movies I do.

I didn't realize that, in doing a documentary, there is this process of discovery. It's not like a film or a play with a set script. It sort of reveals itself.

I'm not one of those people who sees documentaries as a stepping stone to doing fiction. I love documentaries and watch tons of documentaries. But, I like fiction films a lot, too.

The period from 2001 to 2005 was really tough. My films were not working even though there was an acceptance of a model. I was depressed but did not cry. I cry when I am happy.

As far as the balance between being a journalist, being an artist, being a storyteller - documentary filmmakers are all three of those things. The balance between them is affected by the film itself, the topic of the film.

Reality television hasn't killed documentaries, because there are so many great documentaries still being made, but it certainly has changed the landscape. There is this breed of gimmicky documentary that is basically a reality show.

I think the greatest thing about making a documentary is your ability to just follow the story and the subject.

I don't know if I'd mastered that documentary format, but I wanted to move on from it.

For a documentary filmmaker, I do very well.

I think that documentaries are bound by journalistic ethics, and I think they have the pressure of trying to entertain someone for 90 minutes. It's hard, but it's the same question no matter what you're doing. Every film I've done, I've approached it the same way with the same level of respect.

When you make a documentary, you have to adapt to what reality imposes upon you.

I'm a documentary filmmaker, I know what it means to craft a story, especially when you've shot a lot of material.

I don't want to be on a soapbox, but I feel like a lot of documentary filmmakers are part of the ancient tradition of writing down notes, of saying, 'Hey people, hey people!'

I love documentaries. I love the format. I've been doing them for a long time.

The making of the documentary is an involving and collaborative process where you go deeper unlike in movies where you just borrow someone else's script.

You make documentaries because you love doing it; it's the only sane reason to make documentaries.

I have succeeded at times and failed at others, but I am here to do good cinema.

There's nothing attractive about doing a documentary. Nothing. It's hard, hard work, and I find having all the attention of the day on me a very unattractive proposition.

When you're making a real documentary, you shoot it and the movie happens. You don't make - this sounds corny - you don't make a documentary, a documentary makes you. It really does.

Never take no for an answer. It took me 20 years between the time I wrote my first screenplay and the time I actually got money to direct a movie.

As a filmmaker, I always took my inspiration from a filmmaker named Marcel Ophüls, who said, "I always have a point of view, but the trick is showing how hard it is to come to that point of view."