Latest John Waters Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• I love hipsters! Yes, I think they're hilarious. The really cute ones try to look ugly just to prove "I can't be ugly." Normcore was kind of funny too.

  John Waters

  Cute, Hipster, Thinking

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

• What's fascinating to me is that in rich-kid schools, it's better to be gay. No one is discriminated against because they're gay in a rich-kid school. But in poor-kid schools, it's often not the same. So being gay is a class issue now.

  John Waters

  School, Gay, Being Gay

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

• People who want to act rich when they're upper-middle class. They try too hard.

  John Waters

  People, Trying, Rich

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

• Many hundred-million-dollar Hollywood comedies aren't any good. They're trying to shock you.

  John Waters

  Trying, Comedy

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

• You have to think of a new way to completely surprise people who think they're hip. I always said you could make an NC-17 movie with no sex and no violence. Now I don't know what that could possibly be, but if you could think it up, you'd have a hit.

  John Waters

  Thinking, People, Violence

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

• I don't think I had a bad influence on anybody. I made people feel better about themselves.

  John Waters

  Feel Better, Thinking, People

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

• The selfie has become a new autograph, but it takes twice as long to do as a real autograph. I do it because I'm like, "What am I going to do, these people bought me my house." Why am I not going to take a picture with them except I always say, "You have to hold it up! Shoot down or it's really ugly if you shoot up!" So not only does it take longer, you have to teach them camera angles.

  John Waters

  Real, Long, People

  Source: www.chicagotribune.com

• I think it's important to visit people in prison. And if you know anyone in prison, I would encourage you very much to visit them. They're a good audience! I always get good letters from prisoners. I don't usually answer them because I have a lot going on in my life, but I get some really good ones, I get some really good letters from prison.

  John Waters

  Thinking, People, Important

  "Outrageously earnest a John Waters trademark". Interview with Michael Workman, digitaledition.chicagotribune.com.

• I make a great part of my living by traveling and speaking. To me, it's like being a politician, you meet your audience, you constantly see the people and they're getting younger for me which is really, really encouraging. I get older and my audience gets younger. It couldn't be better.

  John Waters

  People, Politician, Audience

  Source: www.chicagotribune.com

• I'm not a separatist, I'm friends with some people who voted for Trump, not many. Nobody has the nerve to tell me, but a few have.

  John Waters

  People

  "John Waters, in town and in rare form, as usual". Interview with Michael Workman, www.chicagotribune.com. April 28, 2017.

• I've always tried to keep reinventing myself and to keep appealing to young people and when I go to colleges now and do my spoken-word show it's astounding to me how I get older and the audience gets younger. To me, that's the best compliment. That's better than money, that's better than anything.

  John Waters

  College, People, Compliment

  "Who gave John Waters the keys to the museum?". Interview with Colin Covert, www.startribune.com. June 5, 2011.

• To use bad taste, you have to know the rules of good taste. I've always thanked my mother for that. She taught how to eat with proper table manners and all that stuff, to the point of rebellion. But I couldn't have rebelled from it if I didn't know it.

  John Waters

  Mother, Rebellion, Manners

  "Who gave John Waters the keys to the museum?". Interview with Colin Covert, www.startribune.com. June 5, 2011.

• I like art that challenges you and makes a lot of people angry because they don't get it. Because they refuse to look at it properly. Rather than open their mind to the possibility of seeing something, they just resist. A lot of people think contemporary art makes them feel stupid. Because they are stupid. They're right. If you have contempt about contemporary art, you are stupid. You can be the most uneducated person in the world and completely appreciate contemporary art, because you see the rebellion. You see that it's trying to change things.

  John Waters

  Art, Stupid, Thinking

  "Who gave John Waters the keys to the museum?". Interview with Colin Covert, www.startribune.com. June 5, 2011.

• I have spoken, and I was understood. It's not like I'm a tragic person who wasn't understood. All those books are in print, all those movies are still out there, the audience gets younger. So I don't have that "I've got to do one thing before I die." I did it.

  John Waters

  Book, Tragic, Print

  Source: www.timeout.com

• 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.

  John Waters

  Independent, Thinking, People

  Source: www.timeout.com

• I was always flattered, but I just want my movies to make money. I want to be commercial. I'm never the person who says, "I don't care if people don't see my movies." I always want people to see my movies.

  John Waters

  People, Care, Want

  Source: www.timeout.com

• Maybe I'll just write books. I'd like to make another movie, but I don't want to go back and [do] what they want you to do, to make it for a million dollars. I did that. I don't need a lot, but I need what I used to get, and they don't give you that anymore.

  John Waters

  Book, Writing, Giving

  Source: www.timeout.com

• Hairspray is the only movie I made that's subversive, because they're doing it in every high school in America. A man's playing a woman, and two men sing a love song to each other.

  John Waters

  Song, School, Men

  Source: www.timeout.com

• 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.

  John Waters

  Night, Thinking, Looks

  Source: www.timeout.com

• 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!"

  John Waters

  Horse, Like Love, Battle

  Source: www.timeout.com

• The first real thing was Divine as Jackie Kennedy [in Eat Your Makeup]. His mother found the bloody Jackie Kennedy outfit in the boot of his car and said, 'What is this?" and Divine said, "I am Jackie Kennedy!" His mother just changed the subject; she didn't know what to say.

  John Waters

  Mother, Real, Makeup

  Source: www.timeout.com

• 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.

  John Waters

  Home, Guests, Pot

  Source: www.timeout.com

• 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.

  John Waters

  Drug, Black, Speed

  Source: www.timeout.com

• Coke didn't last long enough; it gave me a hangover for two weeks for being high for ten minutes.

  John Waters

  Hangover, Two, Long

  Source: www.timeout.com

• I tried heroin. I shot up in high school, but I just thought it was so dreary: puking and nodding.

  John Waters

  School, Nodding, Heroin

  Source: www.timeout.com