Quotes from Morgan Neville

Everything about Hank Williams interests me. His music, his life. His death. His impact.

The problem with a lot of narrative films is that they're not real enough.

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

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

How often do we make films just celebrating people that do a good job, work altruistically, and are in it just for the sake of the love and not the business?

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

I feel like - like Netflix is great if you've got a project ready to launch itself into the world rapidly.

When you come from a place and an identity, you can feel constricted and have to get away. But then you realise how much a part of you it is.

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

I always tell aspiring documentary filmmakers, 'You have to go into it because you love it; if you go into it for the money, you're an idiot.' The number one prerequisite is you have to be intensely curious. If you love learning and trying to make people figure out what makes people tick, it's the best job in the world.

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

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.

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

Harmony singing isn't meant to be done alone.

Maybe this is my left-wing conspiracy theory, but the right has re-branded itself as kind of the everyman party: Who's the person you'd rather have a beer with? The Republican Party, even though it's a party of incredible wealth and corporate interests, has hidden behind this everyman quality.

I feel more relaxed after the Oscar. I feel like I have a chance to just tell the stories I want to tell, and it's actually been really nice.

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

Music, like film, is an incredible tool for creating empathy.

You tend to put your rock stars on pedestals - they seem like they've been there for time immemorial. But you realize that the rock stars have their own rock stars. They were fans and kids once, too.

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.

'The Sound of Silk' will serve as a lens for larger questions about cultural identity in a global society and the potential for individuals to act as catalysts for change.

Church singing is a great training ground.

A lot of backup singers are really shy and don't want their life documented. They're not pining to be celebrity. They've had a front-row look at celebrity for a long time, and most people find out it's not for them.

I'd worked on music docs for years. It felt like writing a novel. By the time I got to Keith Richards, it felt like making a sketch.