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
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.
school nodding heroin
I tried heroin. I shot up in high school, but I just thought it was so dreary: puking and nodding.
people baltimore documentaries
People still come to Baltimore and say, "I didn't realize you made documentaries."
president outsiders united-states
When I was young, no one wanted to be one; now even the President of the United States would call himself an outsider. So now I'm for insiders.
new-york book character
Insider can be more ludicrous. How did I ever end up [as one]? Carsick [Waters's book on hitchhiking] was on the New York Times best-seller list for five weeks. [One of the characters was] a singing asshole that does a duet with Connie Francis! Times have changed. That's mainstream, in a weird way.
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.
school people house
Dreamland Studios then was my bedroom at my parents' house, mostly [starring] people who were in my high school. They look straight at the camera; they're uncomfortable doing it. So, are [early movies] good? No.
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.
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.
school world paychecks
I never got along in school really - I already knew what I wanted to do. I have never in my life got a paycheck from anywhere in the world that asked if I went to school.
school should-have want
You go to school to figure out who you want to be and how you can do it, and [maybe] I should have, because the films would probably be technically better.
mean jealous thinking
The good guys in my movies mind their own business and they don't judge other people. And the bad guys are jealous, they judge other people without knowing the whole story, they want all the attention and they're mean spirited. So I think my films are politically correct in a weird way.
hate humor laughing
Humor is how you change people's opinions, and if you can make someone laugh, they'll listen, even if they hate you.
jail dont-trust-anyone dont-trust
I don't trust anyone that hasn't been to jail at least once in their life.