Explore Quotes by John Waters

And I seek people who break rules with happiness — and not bringing pain to themselves.

Wouldn't you rather your kid be a drug dealer than a drug addict?

Technique is nothing more than failed style.

Going to a sensational murder trial is the only way I can relax.

I don't believe in depression. There's no such thing. It's an invention. It's bullshit, it's a cop out.

Irony ruined everything Even the best exploitation movies were never meant to be `so bad they were good`. They were not made for the intelligentsia. They were made to be violent for real, or to be sexy for real. But now everybody has irony. Even horror films now are ironic. Everybody's in on the joke now. Everybody's hip. Nobody takes anything at face value anymore.

Some call me director, producer, filmmaker. I prefer to call myself pube-king.

I went to a Catholic high school, which, to this day, I could burn down. And I got great revenge because they had their fiftieth anniversary, andThe Baltimore Sun called me and said, ‘What did you think of your high school?’ And I said, ‘They discouraged every interest I ever had.’ And I saw that in print.

There are little things that get on my nerves, like people who have reading material in their powder room. When you go in someone’s house, and next to the toilet they have a huge basket of magazines, I find that repellent. I recommend against straining while reading.

If you can make someone laugh who's dead set against you, that's the first step to winning them over to your side.

As far as socially redeeming value, I hope I don't have any.

I'm for gay marriage. I don't want to do it, but I certainly think people should be allowed to, and I wouldn't vote for anybody that would be against it. But at the same time, why do we have to be good now? Why can't we be villains in movies?

When they throw the water on the witch, she says, “Who would have thought a good little girl like you could destroy my beautiful wickedness”. That line inspired my life. I sometimes say it to myself before I go to sleep, like a prayer.

I'd rather have a daughter in a whorehouse than a son in the police force,' Esther used to rage to anyone who would listen.

It's time now to rent a car, roll down the windows and prepare for your first big thrill: the freeways. They're so much fun they should charge admission. Never fret about zigzagging back and forth through six lanes of traffic at high speeds; it erases jet lag in a split second. You're now heading toward Hollywood, like any normal tourist. Breathe in that smog and feel lucky that only in L.A. will you glimpse a green sun or a brown moon. Forget the propaganda you've heard about clean air; demand oxygen you can see in all its glorious discoloration.

Aren't maids the ultimate art critics?

Do we secretly idolize our imagined opposites, yearning to become the role models for others we know we could never be for ourselves?

To me, beauty is looks you can never forget. A face should jolt, not soothe.

My idea of an interesting person is someone who is quite proud of their seemingly abnormal life and turns their disadvantage into a career.

I always wanted to be a juvenile delinquent but my parents wouldn't let me.

I respect everything I make fun of.