John Waters

“Aren't maids the ultimate art critics?”

“Everybody think they're an outsider - that word's over! When I was young, being an outsider, I thought it was a bad thing you didn't want to be.”

“Life is a rotten lottery. I've had a pretty amazing life, a good life, and God knows I'm thankful, but I do believe that after 30, stop whining! Everybody's dealt a hand, and it's not fair what you get. But you've got to deal with it.”

“I've had it with being nice, understanding, fair and hopeful. I feel like being negative all day. The chip on my shoulder could sink the QE2. I've got an attitude problem and nobody better get in my way...I'm in a bad mood and the whole stupid little world is gonna pay!”

“My mother was Catholic, my father not. I went to Catholic high school. Every form of education failed me. I was trouble.”

“In sixth grade, I went to a very good private school, and I did learn there. I learned how to read and write. If I had quit school in sixth grade, I would know as much as I know today and would have made one more movie. By the time I got to college, I was so bored and angry.”

“בבקשה תחזרי! אני אוהב אותך! אני אוהב אותך יותר מ'קודאק'!”

“לעולם לא אעשה פורנוגרפיה קשה, כי זה נראה יותר מדי כמו ניתוח לב פתוח.”

“בשבילי טעם רע זה תמצית הבידור. אם מישהו מקיא במהלך צפייה בסרטים שלי, זה כמו לקבל תשואות סוערות. אבל צריך לזכור שיש טעם רע טוב וטעם רע רע.”

“החיים זה כלום אם אתה לא אובססיבי. אם אתה אאוטסיידר, ברגע שתפסיק להיות לחוץ לגבי זה, ותאמין שזה יתרון, אתה תנצח. על זה הסרטים שלי. תגזים את הדברים שמציקים לך עליהם ותהיה גאה בהם, ואז אנשים יכבדו אותך. התחבר עם הנוירוזות שלך: זוהי בגרות מודרנית.”

“It's still possible to make movies. Not so much on YouTube. On YouTube, you wind up with an advertising career. What movie became infamous and a hit because of YouTube? Maybe there is one. I don't know.”

“New York was scarier than Baltimore ever was. It was terrible in the '70s. I'm glad they cleaned it up. I got mugged; I had to go to the hospital. Every time you went out, you got robbed. It was horrible. You can't imagine.”

“Science fiction is something I never understood.”

“I thank God I was raised Catholic, so sex will always be dirty.”

“Around '62 in Baltimore, all the girls had those big hairdos. And then suddenly, a few of the really hip ones started doing their hair straight. And people panicked. And it was called going 'Joe,' meaning Joe College. And people would say, 'I don't know. Should I be 'Joe'? I can't decide.'”

“Good actors, actually, in real life, are shy and very quiet people a lot of the time.”

“Putting out compilation records, buying the right to music is incredibly complicated. You have to find the writer of the song and the publisher of the song - not the singer - and make two separate deals.”

“My 40th birthday I held in an old-age home. My 50th I had at Pravda before it opened in New York. My 60th I had at Pastis. For my 70th, I thought, 'I don't need to have a celebrity party this year. I'm going to go take my oldest, closest friends to Paris.'”

“I've taught in prison; I've counseled people... I've been arrested; I've been to the psychiatrist.”

“By wrecking something, it's always reinventing. All modern movements in art and music wrecked what came before, in a way - and surprised the cooler generation that was one step ahead. That's how you get ahead.”