Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi

“Literature has guided me through my whole life.”

“I wish I could say I've been following Youssou N'Dour all my life. I haven't.”

“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.”

“Color is everything. It's another piece of the visual language to express what you're trying to say.”

“The mission of professional mountain climbers is almost impossibly difficult by design: Their very livelihood is based on achieving the unprecedented. Their expeditions are complicated, exhausting, often life-threatening. Risk is the fuel that keeps them going.”

“I always wonder about the word 'intense.' 'Intense' is used to describe women. Guys are intense, but they don't get described that way.”

“In the past, I think my films that focused on African subjects struggled in the marketplace because of their subject matter.”

“I've always sought to give opportunities to women, to people who come from a different background, to add diversity to the mix - in that I think it makes our work better.”

“Documentaries require an enormous amount of grit and empathy - and that is something women are incredibly strong at.”

“There's something about 'Free Solo' that I look at the craft around it, and I'm really proud.”

“'Free Solo' has got nothing to do with politics, so to speak, but why are audiences responding to it in the degree that they did? I think it's because we give people an opportunity to see someone. Also, he's able to connect when you don't think he could connect. It's a respite.”

“Parenthood has made me more cautious.”

“As a documentary filmmaker, 'Meru' was an irresistible challenge. You can spend years searching for the right story, but this one had all the elements: the obstacles, the characters, and the drama.”

“My father filmed me all the time as a kid, and that's how I was first exposed to a camera.”

“I went to Princeton to major in comparative literature. I never went to film school, but I studied storytelling across mediums - poems, literature, film, and journalism.”

“My love was always in books. I was just one of those avid readers. Films came later, but the stories were always present.”

“I joined 'Meru' midstream after my co-director Jimmy Chin had already filmed the 2008 and 2011 climbs.”

“I grew up in New York City, but the rest of the world was a very big part of my upbringing.”

“There have been some wonderful climbing films, but for the most part, they are reenactments.”

“As a director, people are trusting you with their lives, with their stories.”