David Lynch: The original plan was to have a site that was a home for the many experiments and fragments that came from boxes of ideas that I had that never went anywhere. It took three years to build it to the point where we could launch it. And it's not a play pretend site -- stuff moves and it has depth and it's user friendly and there are places to get lost. And it still is in my mind just a beginning because you have ideas, but they have to marry with whatever is happening in the technology of the day. So things are always getting better. We just got a bunch of new servers, and things are going to be much more industrial-strength and smoother. Everybody and his little brother is working to make the Internet faster and cooler, and so it's just a beginning. This whole world of ether is something that didn't exist and now it's really infinite and anything you can think of, little by little, you will be able to do.

PB: How technologically savvy are you? Do you understand how servers work? Does that part of the process interest you? Or are you just the content guy?

DL: Here's the deal. It's just like making a film. You really don't have to know how to build a camera or really even how to operate it. You just have to have an intuition of where to put it and then you are off and rolling. I didn't ever work on a computer until maybe [five years ago]. I like Flash animation. Photoshop I love, and After Effects, a program that goes with Photoshop. Those three programs are where I am at right now. But those are deep programs, and I'm learning more and more and I love it.

PB: You have corporate partners on the site. Do they have any say in the content, seeing as though your work can be abstract and not for everyone?

DL: The Internet in my mind is freedom. It is a home for freedom of expression, and it would be totally absurd to have people you have a deal with have anything to say about anything other than, "Way to go, we're behind you." We got great partners -- Apple and 4D and Discreet.

PB: How many paid users do you have?

DL: We never say, and it fluctuates.

PB: Are there a substantial number from outside the States?

DL: Well the Internet's worldwide, so we have members from all over the world. I don't think we have them from every country in the world, but the Internet is going everywhere and little by little we want to be worldwide. [Eric Bassett, the site's designer, says membership is about one third foreign.]

PB: Can you give an idea about how much money you have invested in the site?

DL: No. Everything's relative. So for me, it's my own money, and it's a lot of money for me. And we are not in a profit situation yet, but the site will one day maintain itself and that's the whole thing. Once it maintains itself, and that means pays for an original series, then I think we will be in a good place. [Bassett later clarified this, saying the site is profitable on a month-to-month basis but that Lynch has yet to recoup his entire investment.]

PB: Members of your pay site are getting together in convention-like situations to discuss your work. How does that make you feel?