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
witty thinking trying
If you think someone's trying too hard, that's the worst thing they can do. To me, it's just desperate, never funny and never witty. It's kind of really old hat because just being shocking isn't enough. It has to change how you think about something. It has to startle you. It has to make you look at something and reconsider whether you're right. That's the whole point.
photography wall taken
My photographs are not really about photography. They are about editing. I use photography but they are all taken from the TV screen. Anybody can do that, but it's the order I put the pictures in to try to create a new kind of movie, something that you can put on your wall.
book touching cards
I've signed peoples' parole cards at book signings and it's very touching.
easter america addiction
The Easter Bunny is a major reason for heroin addiction in America.
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.
gay army fighting
Yeah, I know I should be fighting for gay rights, but who wants to join the army or get married anyway?
political taste action
My films can be considered political action against the tyranny of good taste.
people car looks
People always ask me what I'm doing on the subway, but I love it! Sometimes I like to ride in the front car and look out the window at the rats.
texas people hitchhiking
The "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" hitchhiker really made people never want to hitchhike again - the hitcher, the show. Hitchhiking is always vaguely sexual.
catholic flamingos rage
[My catholic education] sticked with me. It caused the rage I had to make 'Pink Flamingos.'
littles nerves little-things
Ever feel like killing somebody just to see if you could get away with it? Sure, you have. Everybody has little things that get on their nerves.
photography art jobs
I hate it when people say, I'm an artist. I think, well, I'll be the judge of that. And I don't think artist is a job description. It's a critique, a favorable critique, that someone else might apply to your work. I guess in the art world I'm not exactly a photographer, but I do use photography.
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!"
mistake tape use
The way I photograph... in many ways it's directed by chance and all my mistakes, which are often the best stuff. I found that no matter if it's the same tape, the same TV, and the same camera, I can never duplicate an image... your arm jiggles, there's just too much chance. And I never put it on pause, or use any of that fancy equipment.