Zal Batmanglij

“A film set is all about hierarchy, but I always like to think about the circus. In the circus, there's this real sense of tribalism, and they're all on the road together. I don't think the ring leader is more important than the clown. They all work together, and I think that I felt that on 'The East.'”

“To make 'Sound of My Voice,' we had to conceive the entire world and understand it holistically. If you want to show less in a movie, you've got to figure out more.”

“Group think and groups in general allow you to more fully give yourself to something other than yourself and your betterment - to feel a sense of belonging. Now is this a good thing? I don't know, but it's something that is longed for, at least by me.”

“I feel like I studied anthropology in college for a reason.”

“I always think that 'Sound of My Voice' is a movie about the crumbs in 'Hansel and Gretel.' You know, those crumbs. It's about finding your way out of the claustrophobia and alienation of modern life.”

“I wouldn't necessarily recommend shooting a feature film on a still camera.”

“It doesn't really matter what someone's hair looks like or if the sound is perfect. Every director who's made a couple of movies knows that, because you can replace the sound. Or, like, any one shot is not that important, because they all add up together.”

“The beauty of 'The OA' or 'Stranger Things' is that they are both made by Netflix for Netflix. And so there was a freedom all of a sudden that matched our intention.”

“I think it's really important that you don't get caught up in the way the filmmaking community isolates you and the way your life ends up being.”

“I love being on a movie set.”

“The California tract houses are like the mundane meeting the mystical. Sometimes if you're driving at twilight, and you see those houses, and they're starting to light up, there's something so beautiful, so ethereal about the fact that they're all pretty similar, set against this desert landscape and the light just hitting them a certain way.”

“Nobody can seem more politicised and glamorous than the baby-boomers. But their kids are surprisingly robust and late bloomers.”

“When I was 17, I grew from being something like 5'2'' to 6 foot - I grew a lot - and I don't remember growing... I feel like the same thing is true of writing. You're waiting for Santa Claus to come down the chimney, but you just fall asleep at some point, and then the magic happens.”

“In every public space, everyone has their head down on their phone. Including me.”

“I'm a gay man of colour.”

“The beauty of Netflix is, their job is to put stories out there, and not stories that appeal to everybody, which is maybe NBC's job?”

“I like how collaborative and cult-like filmmaking is. It's really family-oriented, tribe-oriented.”

“The art house is an elitist idea.”

“The first time I ever tried edamame, I thought it was gross. I didn't understand the hairy skin. It didn't taste good to me. Now I scarf down a bowl of edamame when I sit down at a restaurant, and I don't think twice about it.”

“A novel is both a story and a piece of writing. A movie is a story and a piece of filmmaking.”