My contacts with the film industry can be described in very simple terms: The industry does not really need me, and I do not really need the industry.

Clive [Oppenheimer] and I figured out that I'm the only one probably in the film industry who is clinically sane. I say that as a joke, but there's a grain of truth to it. I'm not a stupid daredevil who jumps into the crater of the volcano to get the closest close-up, I'm not one of those. And you have to be aware that you have a crew with you and you are responsible.

Everything you see in North Korea, it's all propaganda, but it's all connected to the volcano.

May I propose a Herzog dictum? Those who read own the world, and those who watch television lose it.

If you don't read, you will never be a filmmaker.

When we speak about trespassing, we speak about artistic trespassing. You have to be prudent and have common sense and a sense of responsibility when you're trespassing. I think you haven't seen a film on volcanoes like that before. It's not National Geographic. It is wildly imaginative and very poetic and has a sense of awe that you normally do not see in films.

Netflix knew I was going to North Korea and Ethiopia and Iceland. They saw the film and liked it and that was that.