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
running new-york weekend
I used to run away to New York from Baltimore all the time.I would get on the Greyhound bus and tell my parents I was going to some sorority weekend. I'd even make up fake permission slips, come to New York and just ask people on the street if I could stay with them and go see midnight movies.
running car people
I have no interest in cars. I have a plain, used Buick. I could run over 10 people, and you wouldn't be able to describe my car.
cities film made
I probably would have made [films] anywhere. Every city has something they're ashamed of. I would have made films about it and turned it into something positive.
karma normal aids
The only time I had a normal boyfriend was during the time of AIDS, so maybe that saved me. It's certainly not karma.
hangover two long
Coke didn't last long enough; it gave me a hangover for two weeks for being high for ten minutes.
home guests pot
I'll have pot in my home for guests - I'm polite! - but I don't sit around and smoke by myself, ever. Not like I did when I was young.
horse like-love battle
Pot came first when I was young. But I did the work. It wasn't a battle of what came first. They went together like "love and marriage, horse and carriage!"
night thinking looks
With Hairspray, we had a great experience. I always think of the last time I saw Divine: He was in the last booth in the back of the Odeon. Now every time I go in there, I look at that table. It was a wonderful night.Hairspray had been out a week; it was a hit. If I had to pick a night that was going to be the last night.
independent thinking perfect
I think it's all independent films. There aren't any! If they were looking for me when I was making Polyester, then it'd be perfect, but they're not. I'm not looking for that. TV is much bigger and better now; far more people see it.
who-i-am today lsd
I'm here today because of LSD. LSD gave me the confidence to be who I am today. Completely.
squares nyu three
I just went to Times Square and the underground movies, sometimes three a day. I did get my education. But I really believed then, in 1966, they would not have allowed me to make any of the movies I made. Today, you could make a snuff movie at NYU and get an A.
years baltimore couches
I couch-surfed for years. But I always wanted to live in Baltimore; I still do. If I had to choose, it would always be Baltimore.
san-francisco baltimore left
I live in San Francisco, I live in Provincetown. They're all the same, apart from Baltimore. Baltimore's the only cheap place left.
musician sound jazz
I don't like heroin, unless you're a jazz musician and then you have to be on it because jazz is the sound of heroin.