My mother, throughout her entire life, has been faithful to the church, even though the church has not been that faithful to her because of her politics.
— Alexandra C. Pelosi
I don't have camera crews. I don't have sound guys. What you see is what you get: just me and my camcorder.
Government has to produce affordable housing. Government has to produce answers.
As a documentary filmmaker, I couldn't afford to give my children the lifestyle I had in San Francisco growing up.
Everyone learns how to assimilate through watching television. Everyone thinks America is going to be like Hollywood, and when they get here they keep watching TV to find out how to be.
A lot of communities pretend they don't have homeless and just ignore them or try to make them go away.
People hate politicians, it's really in vogue right now to hate politicians, but we need someone to lead us into the new world economy, we actually need to make decisions and we actually need grownups.
For me, if I was walking down the street and saw a politician, I'd cross the street and walk the other way intentionally, just to not have to talk to them.
No matter how holy and righteous you are, you're still gonna have to kiss up to the billionaire for the check to get yourself elected to change the laws. Even if you're Bernie Sanders.
I don't have any political agenda. I never have and I never will.
I'm not a part of the political industrial complex.
I come from a deeply Catholic family. My husband and I were married in a Catholic church; we decided to put our kids into Catholic school.
There's a certain attitude that you'll experience in San Francisco. You could call it hubris.
San Francisco is the microcosm for what's happening all over the world.
If you live in Port Arthur, Texas, and you don't have any food to feed your family for dinner tonight, global warming is not the most important issue; getting a job and feeding your family is.
I get that Republicans have spent hundreds of millions of dollars to turn my last name into a curse word.
MSNBC is barred from my household. CNN is barred from my household.
I hate to be the one to defend George Bush, but you have to be able to disconnect the professional George Bush from the personal George Bush. I know all the anti-war folks think he is a monster, but he is still a very personable, nice person.
I mean, you make a movie with Sarah Palin in it, you get great ratings. That's easy. I know how to get ratings: get Sarah Palin.
Towns have to evolve. Towns have to grow up. But not at the expense of the real people.
My husband is a Dutch television correspondent. He's not taking any job away from an American. Because I don't really think there are any Americans that can speak Dutch and explain American politics to a Dutch audience.
We like to make the distinction between immigrants we want and immigrants we don't want. They all share one thing, and that's the work ethic.
I live in Manhattan, and on my block there's a church with a soup line every day. There are a lot of children there.
Because in this business, as you know, you don't get that many bites at the apple, so I make documentaries for HBO and that's what I do.
Power isn't real, and it isn't earned. If you act like you have it, suddenly you're leading everyone. Perception is reality.
The liberalism I was taught was you're supposed to accept everyone. Why shouldn't the people in Fort Wayne, Ind., get their side on NBC News?
It's a good line to say we're going to get money out of politics. I don't know how realistic it is.
I may live in liberal America, but I know that this is not the only America.
I've always felt that everything I've done has been a conversation, a continuation of the last conversation that I had with the people who've watched my films... and that each thing led to the next.
Cities need to reinvent themselves in order to stay alive.
If you spend time with people, you understand where they're coming from and you respect them more than if you're judging from a distance.
Cable news wants you to believe that America is red versus blue. I would argue America is way more purple than it looks.
I just don't know that we're as filled with hate as cable news leads us to believe. It's hard to hate up close.
I used to be a kid with a camera, and that used to be kind of endearing to people. Now I'm sort of an old lady with a camera.
I mean, you can forget about George Bush or Jerry Falwell. You can't forget about a homeless kid.
San Francisco is not a boutique - it's a center of commerce.
Everyone talks about immigrants taking jobs, but there are a lot of jobs that America needs.
I made three campaign movies. When you make one you are constantly being told what to do by press secretaries. I got tired of that. Plus, I'm older now with children. I can't be riding along on a campaign bus.
I am not the enemy of tech - I sleep at night with my iPhone on my heart, I'm just as addicted to my devices as every other human walking down the street through a red light in traffic while texting.
Income inequality isn't sexy.
There are a lot of lonely people on the planet that have a lot of money in their pocket and no place to go on a Friday night.
I never say I make documentaries. I say I make television.
But there was money before Citizens United, and there will be money after.
I'm a happy person! I guess I'm not as much of a pessimist as most documentary filmmakers.
There's a lot of documentaries out in the world; it sometimes seems as if there's no topic left!
There are old people in San Francisco because my parents still live there. The young tech bros don't see old people or children. The Mission district, where they live and work, they don't see children or old people. That statement revealed, to me, the blinders that the techies are wearing.
I believe that if everybody spent their next vacation in a community in America with people they didn't agree with, they'd probably leave feeling a little more comfortable about the country they live in.
No one ever won betting against Nancy Pelosi. You've got to give her credit, no matter what you think of her.
I was indoctrinated into a Democratic Party cult from a very early age. But I know that's not the only America and we need to understand the other side.
