Melvin Van Peebles Quotes

My good films were independent and my bad films were not.

The only reason why I would like to be accepted? Because if your movies don't do well, after a while you don't get to make any more movies.

The quality of mainstream cinema has changed. A lot of independent voices feel they can leave everything behind and make independent films.

I'd love to do more independent films.

Box office success has never meant anything. I couldn't get a film made if I paid for it myself. So I'm not 'box office' and never have been, and that's never entered into my kind of mind set.

I like the intimacy of independent films and I like the idea that people aren't being paid necessarily as much money as some one on a studio film.

Most people who've had a big hit movie like 'Paranormal Activity,' the next thing they say is, 'I want to make a $100 million movie.' I have no interest in making more expensive movies.

I've been lucky to have things come to me that creatively fulfill me, and those are usually the independent films just because you have a little bit more freedom.

The thing I've come to learn is that what's great about small independent films is the intimacy and the communication that occurs when you're making them.

Ford Fairlane was one of those movies that was so much fun to make that it was bound not to be a big hit.

Independent films are where you really get to cut your teeth and have some fun and do the things that mainstream Hollywood doesn't want to do.

I've made movies that we're very successful that we're a complete surprise, and I've made movies that I thought we're going to be very successful that, you know.

I've done so many independent movies I'm sure no one will ever see, but I've loved the work.

You've got these big studio films and these tiny independent films now. It's very much either/or. With the independent films, it's always a beautiful risk - it might never be seen. With the studio films, you're conforming to the formula of what's always been in place.

Had 'Bridesmaids' not ended up being so amazing and successful, we would never have been able to make 'Bachelorette.' So we are in awe of 'Bridesmaids' and totally owe them so much.

As long as there's really good actors that use their clout to support fringe films, whatever genre it is, they'll still get made.

I love doing independent films, but it's very hard to make a living that way.

When a film like Chris Nolan's Memento cannot get picked up, to me independent film is over. It's dead.

Ultimately, making movies, if you don't have a big star, it's hard to do. Or if it's not a star director.

I've made 30 movies and for the most part my movies work. In a business where success is an exception and not the rule, I've mostly been successful.

I'm so not interested in producing, other than doing my own work, producing my own films. I only do it as favors, for other people to get their films made.

After I do a big movie I get offered big movies. But I always do the weirdest indie.

For me, the movies I like are all independent. And getting an independent feature made, it's like you get down to the selling organs part, and it just loses some of its luster.

It just seems like that because I do a lot of independent films that don't get to the mainstream.

I personally like to do independent films.