110+ John Waters Quotes On Education, Lessons And Sinead O Connor

John Waters is an American filmmaker, actor, writer, and visual artist. He is best known for his cult films, including Pink Flamingos, Hairspray, and Cry-Baby. Waters is also known for his outrageous and transgressive style of filmmaking, which often includes taboo subject matter. Following is our collection on famous quotes by John Waters on life, education, love.

Top 10 John Waters Quotes

1. If you go home with somebody, and they don't have books, don't fuck 'em!
2. It wasn't until I started reading and found books they wouldn't let us read in school that I discovered you could be insane and happy and have a good life without being like everybody else.
3. My idea of rich is that you can buy every book you ever want without looking at the price and you're never around assholes. That's the two things to really fight for in life.
4. [My catholic education] sticked with me. It caused the rage I had to make 'Pink Flamingos.'
5. My idea of an interesting person is someone who is quite proud of their seemingly abnormal life and turns their disadvantage into a career.
6. True success is figuring out your life and career so you never have to be around jerks.
7. Without obsession, life is nothing.
8. I thank God I was raised Catholic, so sex will always be dirty.
9. Being rich is not about how much money you have or how many homes you own; it's the freedom to buy any book you want without looking at the price and wondering if you can afford it.
10. The "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" hitchhiker really made people never want to hitchhike again - the hitcher, the show. Hitchhiking is always vaguely sexual.

John Waters Short Quotes

• I like hard movies; I like ones that are basically the opposite of a date movie.
• I would never do hard-core pornography, because it looks too much like open-heart surgery.
• The Easter Bunny is a major reason for heroin addiction in America.
• There was a cultural war going on, the '60s was going on. All the film critics were square.
• To understand bad taste one must have very good taste.
• I always wanted to be a juvenile delinquent but my parents wouldn't let me.
• Wouldn't you rather your kid be a drug dealer than a drug addict?
• My films can be considered political action against the tyranny of good taste.
• Contemporary art hates you.
• My hobby is extreme Catholic behavior - before the Reformation.

John Waters Quotes About Life

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. — John Waters

And my little sister Chrissy, for teaching me that life is nothing if you're not obsessed. — John Waters

Life is a rotten lottery. — John Waters

A psychiatrist once told me early in treatment, "Stop trying to make me like you," and what a sobering and welcome smack in the face that statement was. Yet somehow, every day of my life is still a campaign for popularity, or better yet, a crowded funeral. — John Waters

I'm trying to do of a certain attitude in life. I'm against separatism. I'm for everyone to gather. I'm for everyone lunatic to hang out together. I want to hear somebody else's bad night, not just mine. — John Waters

Things are going great in every part of my life except movies. That's okay. I've got a lot of other parts of my life. I've made 15 movies. You can see any one of my movies and it says the same thing. — John Waters

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. — John Waters

Censorship has been my best press agent my whole life. — John Waters

If I died tomorrow I've accomplished what I set out to do in my life. I enjoy making my movies, I enjoy doing what I do. I have a nice life. — John Waters

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. — John Waters

John Waters Quotes About Love

I think the best article was the article about radical feminists being against transgender women. I found that the most fascinating article and I absolutely loved it. I love battles within the gay community or feminist community. I love radical theorists. — John Waters

If you're not sure you could love your children, please don't have them, because they might grow up and kill us. — John Waters

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

I think middle America has changed very, very much. I think people are way more open-minded. I think - I think it's because the Internet. I think they're exposed to so much. All the men talked about how much they love their wife, which I don't hear all the time in art communities. — John Waters

I'd love to sell out completely. It's just that nobody has been willing to buy. — John Waters

I loved Cookie [Mueller]. She was a much better writer than actress. She shouldn't have stuck with me in the beginning; she should have immediately become a writer. She would have had more of a chance. — John Waters

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

I love radical theorists. But at the same time, I don't agree with them a lot, but I love their theories. I love how they intellectualize rage, and this inner battle that such a tiny percent of people really care about. I find that the most interesting. — John Waters

I love to read about anger. A "feel bad" book always makes me feel good. And no other novel in the history of literature is more depressing than Christina Stead's The Man Who Loved Children. — John Waters

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. — John Waters

John Waters Quotes About Books

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. — John Waters

Wealth is walking into any bookshop and buying any book you want without looking at the price tag. — John Waters

I've signed peoples' parole cards at book signings and it's very touching. — John Waters

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

If you ever go home with somebody and they don't have books in their house, don't sleep with them. I think that's very important. — John Waters

You have to remember that it is impossible to commit a crime while reading a book. — John Waters

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

John Waters Quotes About World

Even illegal weapons have lost their panache. Zip guns and shanks were at least homemade. Where is the craft in a grade-schooler firing a magnum? What is the world coming to? It's not even bad to be a communist anymore! — John Waters

Maybe there is no better novel in the world than Denton Welch's In Youth Is Pleasure. Just holding it in my hands, so precious, so beyond gay, so deliciously subversive, is enough to make illiteracy a worse social crime than hunger. — John Waters

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! — John Waters

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. — John Waters

I would describe myself as a writer that hopes to take you into my world and help you feel a little safer. — John Waters

I must admit, even my fans everywhere I go in the world - just this week I was in London and Glasgow and the week before I was in Des Moines - my fans all look the same in all those cities - they look great! — John Waters

John Waters Quotes About Stupid

...Don't let me ever hear you say, 'I can't read fiction. I only have time for the truth.' Fiction is the truth, fool! Ever hear of 'literature'? That means fiction, too, stupid. — John Waters

Stupid is never that entertaining. You can be stupid and sexy, stupid and funny but he's just plain stupid. That is not remarkable, that's what I mean. — John Waters

I get dumber as the day goes along. Every second of the day that goes along, I get stupider. — John Waters

John Waters Famous Quotes And Sayings

"Family" this and "family" that. If I had a family I'd be furious that moral busybodies are taking the perfectly good word family and using it as a code for censorship the same way "states' rights" was used to disguise racism in the mid-sixties. — John Waters

I like rap music. But bragging about being rich to poor people is really offensive. I want to hear a rap song about buying a Cy Twombly painting or dating a museum curator. I want to hear about that kind of rich. — John Waters

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

I don't know how I made those movies. I went out every single night, I smoked pot every single day. I drank. We did everything, but I never became a drug addict or an alcoholic. Other friends are dead, many of them. So many people in this retrospective...in Female Trouble, almost everyone is dead. — John Waters

I could never kill myself. I approve of suicide if you have horrible health. Otherwise it's the ultimate hissy fit. — John Waters

To me, bad taste is what entertainment is all about. If someone vomits while watching one of my films, it's like getting a standing ovation. But one must remember that there is such a thing as good bad taste and bad bad taste. — John Waters

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

I would never want to live anywhere but Baltimore. You can look far and wide, but you'll never discover a stranger city with such extreme style. It's as if every eccentric in the South decided to move north, ran out of gas in Baltimore, and decided to stay. — John Waters

Hitchhiking, intrinsically, is sexual and dangerous. At the same time I never really felt scared. I was scared that nobody would pick me up and that I'd be waiting by the side of the road for a week. — John Waters

I also hate those holidays that fall on a Monday where you don't get mail, those fake holidays like Columbus Day. What did Christopher Columbus do, discover America? If he hadn't, somebody else would have and we'd still be here. Big deal. — John Waters

Stop blaming your parents. If you're really angry at 60 years old, you're an idiot! You've got to work some of it out. — John Waters

To me, racist jokes are not funny. I am politically correct, in a weird way. I like to push the boundaries that are politically correct. — John Waters

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday because I don't have to do anything except bring wine and go to my sister's all day and go to the movies with the family. So, actually, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, but there's not much comedy material on Thanksgiving. Melatonin really isn't that funny. — John Waters

There is still such a thing as subversive. Subversive makes hip people nervous. It's something new that scares you in a good way. I mean, subversive to me is a compliment. Subversive is something that influences people to do something against society that they haven't thought of before. — John Waters

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

I built my [early] career on negative reviews. There was a cultural war going on, the '60s was going on. All the film critics were square. They hated my movies. You could never have that happen today. Critics are way too hip. — John Waters

I always say you need something weird on your face and some good shoes and nobody looks in the middle. — John Waters

So to make movies, if you're first goal is to make money, well you can! Make a tent-pole movie that China wants. But that's not the kind of thing that's really going to get your remembered. You're not going to change anything with that. You might become rich from it! — John Waters

I really didn't have any bad hitchhiking experiences. The only bad experiences were standing by the road for 10 hours. I never thought I'd get a ride with a ministers wife or a coalminer or a Republican elected official. It was all pleasant surprises. The only drag was the waiting. — John Waters

I'm thrilled to have a completely new audience that I can get from Court TV, without it being my own trial. That was the only other way I would have gotten it. — John Waters

It`s great to be able to drive around and spy on people, which I do when I'm writing. People tell me the most personal things about their lives for no reason - on airplanes, everywhere I go. People just blurt out secrets. I'm not sure why. I think that they see in my films that nothing will make me uptight. I'm not going to judge them. — John Waters

I never had any desire to get a tattoo. If I was ever going to get one, I would get a plain anchor with a rope around it, the most unimaginative possible tattoo, like Popeye had. — John Waters

Once I had a shrink who said, "Your parents are the fuel you run on," because I was raised in the tyranny of good taste. If my parents hadn't taught me all that, I couldn't have made fun of it. So I thank them, and they were loving. It takes a long time to realize that they made me feel safe when I lived a life which was very not safe. — John Waters

No comedy should be longer than 90 minutes. There's no such thing as a good long joke. — John Waters

Watching a movie should be like hunting. Out of context, every image of the cinema is yours for a split second. Take them before they bury it. — John Waters

Aren't maids the ultimate art critics? — John Waters

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

Anytime you make someone laugh or satirize something, it's the best way to change someone's opinion because they're defenseless - they laugh, they listen. — John Waters

I'm the smartest at 8 A.M. I wake up at 6, drink three cups of Awake Tazo Tea and read five newspapers. I have to think up something every day, Monday to Friday. — John Waters

I'm perpetual tourist, and that's the best way to travel. Nobody gets used to you, you make new friends without having to hear anyone's everyday problems, and you jet back still feeling like a know-it-all. — John Waters

I haven't changed - the public has. I'm an insider now, which is hilarious. — John Waters

How come there's no terrorism with humor, which is a great way to humiliate your enemy? It's a great time for that. — John Waters

I've signed dicks, asses, parole cards, a colostomy bag while it was still pumping. A couple of years ago, I signed a bloody Tampax. That's one you don't forget. I'm not asking for someone to top that! — John Waters

At the premiere of Hairspray on Broadway, Harvey Fierstein's mom said to my mom, "Didn't we raise great sons?" and my mother just started sobbing, because I'm sure they'd both been through other nights when people didn't say that. — John Waters

I've always believed in the goodness of people. I teach in prison. They all said, don't do it. Carry a gun, take Mace. Are you kidding? I guess, they're around so many criminal elements that they fear for. — John Waters

My favorite characters are people who think they're normal but they're not. I live in Baltimore, and it's full of people like that. I've also lived in New York, which is full of people who think they're crazy, but they're completely normal. — John Waters

I think I technically learned some things, hopefully. But I go to the movies for characters and story and a berserk vision. — John Waters

I can't tell the difference between the best and the worst 'cause I realize not everybody wants to have sex in the middle of a demolition derby race in the car. — John Waters

People are going to say, "I was a lesbian back in the 90s" just like people say, "I was a hippie in the 60s". I see them struggling. Rich girls struggling with their heterosexuality. — John Waters

I always give books. And I always ask for books. I think you should reward people sexually for getting you books. Don't send a thank-you note, repay them with sexual activity. If the book is rare or by your favorite author or one you didn't know about, reward them with the most perverted sex act you can think of. Otherwise, you can just make out. — John Waters

William Castle and Alfred Hitchcock were the first director-personalities. Before then, nobody in America knew what a director was. — John Waters

I'm a film director. Gay is an adjective that I certainly am, but I don't know that it's my first one. I think if you're just a gay filmmaker, you get pigeonholed just like if you say I'm a black filmmaker, I'm a Spanish filmmaker, I'm a whatever. — John Waters

I live in San Francisco, I live in Provincetown. They're all the same, apart from Baltimore. Baltimore's the only cheap place left. — John Waters

I've bought the same used car from the same man since I was 16 - a Buick every time. They always work, I don't care what color it is. I don't want people to recognize my car in case I want to commit a crime. — John Waters

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

I think Chelsea Girls is a complete masterpiece and I think Andy's [Warhol] films are equally as good as the art. I think one day they will be considered equal. They aren't yet. They will be. — John Waters

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

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. — John Waters

Get on the fashion nerves of your peers, not your parents - that is the key to fashion leadership. — John Waters

I always feel bad when I meet celebrities and I can just tell every single thing about their personal life, I just say, "Well, they don't have friends. Or a therapist." Once you have both, you don't have to share everything with people, because then you don't have a private life, and then you're, I guess, a workaholic. — John Waters

You have to remember the police used to raid and arrest the audience for seeing Scorpio Rising (1964), or Jack Smith movies. Wouldn't that be exciting today, if you see went to the movie and everyone at the IFC was arrested in a paddy wagon and taken away? — John Waters

I think that's why I've lasted this long because I love everything I make fun of! I make fun of myself first! I mean, I started my career by calling my films "trash" - the local critics used to complain that I beat the critic to the typewriter. — John Waters

I think that in America there is a new movement of underground movies that wants to kick the ass of independent films that they think whine too much. — John Waters

I wish something on T.V. would trouble me. Then maybe I would watch it. — John Waters

I'm an old person because I still buy DVDs. I have every one of my albums and 45s - I even have a couple of 33s and I do have a turntable. But I must admit, I don't listen to vinyl today. But I listen to all types of music. — John Waters

The only way I've learned to change anyone's mind politically is to make them laugh. My whole career has been about that. — John Waters

God knows if you could start a new sex act that's more important than making a good movie. — John Waters

It was a mystery to me. To that awful black-and-white farm, with that aunt who was dressed badly, with smelly farm animals around when she could live with winged monkeys and magic shoes and gay lions. I didn't get it. — John Waters

I like the word 'underground'... 'independent' carries a stigma of whininess. 'Underground' means a good time. — John Waters

I have no interest in cars. I have a plain, used Buick. I could run over 10 people, and you wouldn't be able to describe my car. — John Waters

I learned that people like my work because I praise things that others don't like. — John Waters

I imagine Johnny Mathis hates Bin Laden as much as I do, but could Johnny agree Bin Laden had a better speechwriter than Bush? "Axis of Evil"? Come on. "A swimmer in the ocean does not fear the rain" is much more powerful propaganda. Poetic, even. — John Waters

I have to talk about my movies. I have to give interviews to promote what I'm doing. But no one really knows my personal life. And if you don't have a personal life I feel bad for you. — John Waters

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. — John Waters

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

A lot of kids are moving to Baltimore, because we have a great music scene and we've got edge. Come on down, we've got scary edge. But great edge - it's still a city you can be a bohemian in. — John Waters

Shutting down governments on your computer is just as much as fun as going to a riot at Yale. — John Waters

Everybody should wish they had home movies of themselves, acting out their lunacy on LSD. — John Waters

I can't complain about anything. It's like saying, "I don't like talkies." Time marches on and I don't care how people watch my movies as long as they see them. I don't care if they're on their phone. Believe me, if you ever want to watch my early films they would look a lot better on your phone than they would on a movie screen. The smaller the better. — John Waters

You see a kid making a film on a cell phone. He doesn't know what he's doing either. But it comes out kind of good. — John Waters

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. — John Waters

"How could you think of such awful things?" liberal critics always ask. "How else could I possibly amuse myself?" I always wonder. — John Waters

Life Lessons by John Waters

1. John Waters' work emphasizes the importance of being true to yourself and embracing the unconventional.
2. He encourages viewers to challenge societal norms and explore their own individualism.
3. His films often feature dark humor and satire, demonstrating the power of comedy to make a statement and effect change.