One thing about Kurt [Cobain] is before he was a musician, and before he was a rock star, he was an artist, and an artist with a capital A. What that means is that he had to create. It wasn't something that he chose to do - it chose him.

As a generation, Generation X or whatever we were called, we were not being nurtured. We didn't have Obama. We didn't have Bill Clinton. We didn't have any politicians that you could look up to, nor did we have parents.

I never met Kurt Cobain, but I felt like I got to know him in a manner probably more intimate than anyone I've known outside of my family.

You have Kurt [Cobain], and he's singing about your experiences. They're our collective experiences.

I try and make non-fiction films that feel like fiction, so I'm always looking for the subtext and that's what really excites me.

I've never had access to another person's art and work or, particularly, someone who is as prolific and was able to externalize his interior world as deeply as Kurt [Cobain] could.

My documentaries have always been very much constructed in the spirit of dominant cinema. From the time I started making non-fiction, I was mainly interested in designing and creating documentaries like fiction, so it was a natural evolution to try and embark on doing a dramatic narrative.

Oftentimes when people make movies about the '80s, they go back and look at '80s films, [but] those look nothing like the '80s. It's some watered-down version of reality.

You can't divorce yourself from your own life experiences.

Every second counts. We are only on this earth for a short amount of time, and we get to decide how we want to use that time. And if one thinks that the purpose of life is to leave the world in just a little bit better place than we found it, it's hard to think of anyone who has contributed more than Jane Goodall.

I have three children, and they have never spent a minute unsupervised in their lives. My generation overcompensated like mad. I'm not even joking, every kid on my street [growing up] was molested. My kids would not have had an opportunity to molested, because they've never been alone, which is going to create a whole set of problems.

Everybody feels protective and possessive about Kurt [Cobain] , and I think that can be attributed to his unique gift, an ability to touch our lives, and make us feel like he's our friend.

Sometimes, you chase the moment and you can never catch it. Films take so long to make that you can never anticipate what the cultural landscape will be when the film enters the world.