"I felt like I was getting a Chinese version of Chinese culture. And that frame felt unique."

"I guess because Werner Herzog might be the coolest man in the world. I like how he inserts himself into all of his stories. I’m a big fan of, I guess, “direct” cinema, but I don’t believe that a documentarian has to be a fly on the wall. That would be dull. I would listen to Herzog read anything. He could read the yellow pages. [On the influence of Herzog on Catfish] I guess just the basic instinct on our part just to be in our own films, to be a cameraman and a voice behind the camera and perhaps a character at times. We definitely get that from Herzog."

"I was fifteen when I began to read Federico Garcia Lorca. His poems perhaps have had the greatest influence on my texts. He summoned up a world where I felt at home. His images were sensual and mysterious: ‘throw a fist full of ants to the sun.’ I wanted to be able to write something like that as well. A few years ago I wrote a musical adaptation of Lorca’s ‘Little Viennese Waltz.’ Then I noticed what a complex writer he was: it took me more than a hundred hours just to translate the poem. Lorca is one of those rare poets with whom you can stay in love for life."