Nina Paley

"You dont deserve to be paid because you choose to do something that somebody else may, or may not, want. If you want to be paid for your work, you negotiate that beforehand. Otherwise I would just be walking around talking. Here I am talking now. "You owe me money", right? … Its up to you whether or not you want to do work with no contract. I think artists do need to do work with no contract, because what were motivated by is not money. Were motivated by a need to express ourselves and to get our ideas out. Thats the motivation. It turns out that when people like it they frequently will support you if you give them a means, but this is not a contract."

"Yes, I know bad bad people can also use the .fla files for dastardly deeds (the dreaded hypothetical “Nazi Porn Version” that always comes up at Q&A’s). Bad bad people can use our shared Language and Technology for evil too, but I’m not going to constipate culture out of fear of imaginary worst-case scenarios. I’m confident much more good will come from this than bad, and that’s motivation enough for me. It’s Free Culture, baby. If programmers can tinker with the Free Software’s source code, artists can tinker with Sita Sings the Blues‘ source files."

"Because I didnt sell it to a distributor, it can be in lots of film festivals. Its been in, I think, at least 200 festivals, its won more than 35 awards which is great. I like that! If I had gone with a distributor they would have immediately said no to film festivals which I do not understand why distributors do, but thats what they do."

"Copying is not theft Stealing a thing leaves one less left Copying it makes one thing more Thats what copyings for. Copying isnt theft If I copy yours, you have it too One for me and one for you Thats what copies can do. If I steal your bicycle, You have to take the bus But if I just copy it, Theres one for each of us! Making more of a thing That is what we call copying Sharing ideas with everyone Thats why copying... ...Is fun!"

"I dont think distributors are cheating or evil or anything like that, I just think that the business model is unsustainable so they truly dont have money. Theres just not much money in this particular model."

"Total box office so far has been $22,350 … that trickles down to $3,000 for me. Which really isnt much, but its fine. People are seeing the film and theyre seeing it the the way it should be seen. I do not feel like the distributors are ripping me off. I feel like this is the model of film distribution and this is the reality of it and fortunately my income is not dependent on it."

"Our idea, which art in the ether, that cannot be named: Thy vision come, thy will be done, on Earth as it is an abstraction. Give us this day our daily spark and forgive our criticisms, as we forgive those who critique against us. And lead us not into stagnation, but deliver us from ego, for thine is the vision, the power and the glory forever. Amen."

"Everyone wants me to make another movie and Im like "Yeah, Im doing quilts." Yeah, I have ideas. I have to be really, really obsessively moved. Like I have to have no other choice to do a project that takes that much time and it has to be a motivation other than just that I know that I will get approval for it. Much as I love approval, I mean its extremely tempting. I want it. And I have a lot of doubts about following my muse when my muse leads me down some weird path. Again, like quilts. But I also know that if I do something just because I know people will approve of that, thats not really going to help me as an artist. So Im not ruling out doing another film, but Im only going to do it if I have no other choice, which was the case with Sita Sings the Blues."

"♡ Copying is an act of love. Please copy & share."

"My grand total for the free film was $132,000, and that is a business model I am totally sticking to. And everything that I do now is totally free."

"I love money! Just because its free doesnt mean I dont like money. And actually Ive made more money this way than any distributor said I could possibly make, which isnt much because independent distributors are notoriously without money. So the most money any distributor told me I could possibly hope to make on this film, total, maximum, in my wildest dreams was $50,000, and they said much more realistic would be $10,000 or $25,000 and the biggest advance I was offered, I think, was $20,000 and thats for locking up all the rights."

"For fans of Sita Sings the Blues Ms. Paley’s imaginative leaps and blend of styles are part and parcel of the film’s visual and aural originality. “You can actually feel how much time went into it,” said Alison Dickey, a film producer and one of the jurors who nominated Ms. Paley for Film Independent’s Someone to Watch honor, to be announced at the Spirit Awards next Saturday. “We see so many films, and when you come across one like this, you just feel like you’ve stumbled upon a gem.”"