John Waters
John Waters
John Samuel Waters, Jr.is an American film director, screenwriter, author, actor, stand-up comedian, journalist, visual artist, and art collector, who rose to fame in the early 1970s for his transgressive cult films. Waters's 1970s and early '80s films feature his regular troupe of actors known as the Dreamlanders—among them Divine, Mink Stole, David Lochary, Mary Vivian Pearce, and Edith Massey. Starting with Desperate Living, Waters began casting real-life convicted criminalsand controversial people...
ProfessionDirector
Date of Birth22 April 1946
careers jerk true-success
True success is figuring out your life and career so you never have to be around jerks.
drug black speed
I liked speed. I was on black beauties all the time. Nothing bad happened to me. I didn't become a drug addict because I always had to make a movie. We weren't stoned when we made them; I was stoned when I made movies up. I did them all.
karma bullshit people
So many great people are dead, and so many assholes I know are still alive. Karma's bullshit. I wish it was true, but it ain't.
ovation taste entertainment
To me, bad taste is what entertainment is all about. If someone vomits while watching one of my films, it's like getting a standing ovation. But one must remember that there is such a thing as good bad taste and bad bad taste.
independent thinking america
I think that in America there is a new movement of underground movies that wants to kick the ass of independent films that they think whine too much.
life-is obsession
Without obsession, life is nothing.
running fun long
Once I had a shrink who said, "Your parents are the fuel you run on," because I was raised in the tyranny of good taste. If my parents hadn't taught me all that, I couldn't have made fun of it. So I thank them, and they were loving. It takes a long time to realize that they made me feel safe when I lived a life which was very not safe.
opposites role-models roles
Do we secretly idolize our imagined opposites, yearning to become the role models for others we know we could never be for ourselves?
hunting splits cinema
Watching a movie should be like hunting. Out of context, every image of the cinema is yours for a split second. Take them before they bury it.
reading book impossible
You have to remember that it is impossible to commit a crime while reading a book.
shoes looks faces
I always say you need something weird on your face and some good shoes and nobody looks in the middle.
hipster life-is obsessed
Life is nothing if you're not obsessed.
night people drug
I don't know how I made those movies. I went out every single night, I smoked pot every single day. I drank. We did everything, but I never became a drug addict or an alcoholic. Other friends are dead, many of them. So many people in this retrospective...in Female Trouble, almost everyone is dead.
beautiful girl prayer
When they throw the water on the witch, she says, “Who would have thought a good little girl like you could destroy my beautiful wickedness”. That line inspired my life. I sometimes say it to myself before I go to sleep, like a prayer.