Quotes from Allison Anders

I've been amazed watching people who are not ready with their scripts when they're getting a lot of attention.

I don't believe you ever get closure on anything. Things leave a permanent mark on you.

There's a persona that musicians carry with them. I like to find what's under the persona.

This practice of skinny actresses donning fat suits is essentially the new and acceptable blackface in Hollywood.

Sundance is the only hand that feeds for women directors.

I had always felt deep down that I owned the characters. Much as I adored and cherished the work of my actors, I felt that they were cast to do and be what I could not physically do or be.

When you're traumatized, you pick out one thing you remember more than anything else.

I had breast cancer. I caught it early.

I think when I got drawn to film, I didn't know it was a business. I mean, like most filmmakers, I probably saw more films than a lot of people when I was a kid. But I watched them on TV as well. I was no purist about it. I spent lots of time in movie theaters, but I also watched a lot of films on TV.

Nothing feels worse than knowing that people didn't see your movie. That they wanted to and the critics loved it but nobody knew where it was because it didn't do what it was supposed to do opening weekend. It used to be that independents were allowed to stay in the theaters, build word of mouth.

Box office is one of the strongest tools we have toward preserving our ability to make our movies. We really can make a difference by purchasing a ticket each opening weekend to a movie made by a woman, even if you don't like the movie or the filmmaker and even if you don't see the film.

I hope the next actress offered millions to play the 'fat girl for the day' stops to think about this before she signs the contract - even if just to ask, like any professional actress would in any other situation, 'Why does she weigh 350 pounds? And why me for the part?' If the director can't answer these questions, don't do the movie.

It was such a struggle for me to make it off welfare. I was getting $630 a month for myself and my children with no support from their fathers. The rent was $600 a month, and if you got a job, they took it out of your welfare.

Let's face it - no matter how independent you are, you still have this nagging need to be desired.

I love showing off my tattoos.

When I wanted to become a filmmaker, there was nobody for me to look up to.

The first thing I did for TV was a pilot for CBS.

You still get the movies made. A filmmaker can always scrape up money to do a movie. The passion drives it. And you'll get the money. Money's the easiest thing. But the hardest thing is finding a way for people to see your movie.

You end up giving up half your salary every time you make a movie because you need the money to make the movie you have in your head.

Do we have to be rail thin to possess 'outer beauty' and sex appeal and to be capable of attracting lovers?

While we can work hard at improving our health, size is no more in our control than the color of our skin, our ethnicity, or our sexual preference.

Nowadays you don't get to see composition in a movie because nobody ever keeps the camera still long enough to see it. Actors don't have the thrill and the power of working with space.

Art should never be held above our decency to each other.

In the early '90s when the American independent movie started, it held personal vision as a premium. That was brilliant timing.