Quotes from Louis Theroux

I have been to a few A-list parties, but not massively. It's not my life, but it's fun dipping into it.

There is no shame is being ambivalent about almost everything in your life.

Sometimes you shoot for 40 or 50 hours for a one-hour show, and you have to make some very hard choices.

I never misrepresent my position - you've got to be strong enough to make the argument and marshal the case.

It is important to note that most of the patients in Ohio's mental health facilities have never committed crimes. They are institutionalised because they have lost touch with reality and are having problems functioning unaided in the community.

I never thought I would really like to be on television, and the story of me getting into it was quite lucky, really, just a series of chance encounters. So I am not exactly putting myself across as a celebrity, although people might perceive me that way.

Not counting the brand of Sunni Islam practised by the so-called Islamic State, there is probably no religion in the world that comes in for more flak than Scientology.

There's always a negotiation that goes on to persuade people we are coming to the subject with an open mind but without surrendering too many pawns. We don't want to misrepresent the fact that we will draw our own conclusions.

Funnily enough, the most danger I felt was when I did a story about exotic animals kept as pets in America.

You can say, 'I am a poet, rock-climbing shaman, and my name is Hiawatha Moonbeam,' and people in America will say, 'Hey, that's great. All power to you, man'.

I'm not necessarily scanning for clues when I make documentaries.

I really do try not to emote. I don't like seeing it on documentaries - it seems a bit unprofessional. I also need to be human being and be a kind of sympathetic presence for the contributors I'm with, so there' a line you have to walk.

I'm not that comfortable doing polemic or being strident.

I would love to make a film in the outback or in Papua New Guinea, in Port Moresby. I know that it's not in Australia, but it's not too far.

It's difficult to describe the weirdness of speaking to a man who appears to be perfectly in control of his faculties, who can deliver off-the-cuff repartee, and yet who is actually utterly disconnected from who he is.

In the past, I've tried to show the human side of people involved in stigmatised or misunderstood lifestyles. I've tried to resist easy judgments and not pander to prejudices.

There's obviously a lot of controversy around the issue of hunting as there is around gambling, and I like these stories where there is a moral dimension, stories that force you to think about your prejudices about a subject and explore the extent to which they are justified.

Prisons and jails, I tend to feel that you're actually safer as a journalist than you might think, certainly more than it appears.

One of the things I have always enjoyed about Scientology is their proactive approach to journalists who are covering them.

I've discovered I am quite a puritanical person.

I think of myself as being quite affable, approachable, fairly easy to get to know.

I'm following my interests, and there's something about investigating the world and creating a watchable, entertaining programme out of it that is deeply satisfying.

In west London where I live, white people are a minority. In the area I am in, which is the borough of Brent, whites are less than 50%.

The world is a stage we walk upon. We are all in a way fictional characters who write ourselves with our beliefs.