Morgan Neville

“If you're making a film about a band or a songwriter or whomever, there's a publisher, there's a record label, and there are people who are vested interests in that film. But with back-up singers, because they did stuff for everybody, there's no one party that has any vested interest in seeing the story told.”

“I so often doubt how much people on television believe what they're saying. They're playing roles for think tanks or political parties or shills of whatever stripe.”

“I wish I didn't care about what people thought as much as Keith Richards doesn't care.”

“The first night I met Yo-Yo Ma, I found him the most charming person I had ever met, and I was willing to follow him with the camera anywhere.”

“Docs, in general, are made in the edit bay, archival docs even more so.”

“I could really sink my teeth into a David Bowie documentary.”

“Being a backup singer means being able to sing on a dime. Music is oozing out of their every pore.”

“If the Olympic Spirit is about overcoming every hurdle and accepting no limits, then I think Samsung is a great ambassador for these values.”

“Church singing is a great training ground.”

“By the rules of debate, if you lose your cool, you've lost the game.”

“Politicians pretend not to be smart.”

“I came up in left-wing political writing. My first job out of college was working as Gore Vidal's fact checker.”

“We saw The Who on New Year's Eve in 1975.”

“Space is something which makes us question our role here on Earth. It brings out the best of our hopes and dreams.”

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

“There are a handful of music docs I'd love to do, including David Bowie.”

“Culture in general is important, and people's identify is tied up in it. It's how we connect with others.”

“If we can't agree on objective truth, then how are we ever going to agree on opinions?”

“Non-fiction or documentaries can tell any kind of a story because they don't have to adhere to the rules of what's possible. When you're making something up, you have to say, 'Well, this is what would happen here,' but in reality, stuff happens that seems impossible.”

“As a writer, I think about films I work on in a traditional Hollywood kind of a way. I'm curious to see how it translates.”