I met John when I was 18 and I was in my first John Waters film when I was 19.

We've had the same set designer and the same crew in many cases since 1972.

The point is, when you have a chance to have a big adventure, especially if, like in your case, it doesn't hurt anyone, it's just plain foolish not to take it.

Restless, and in desperate need of adventure, I quit my job at an insurance company to travel west with a couple of guys I smoked pot with, scandalizing my family.

The first things I did when I got out of school in '65 was to buy a pair of Levis and pierce my ears.

Even then, our family was extraordinary, with ten kids.

It was there that, through a mutual friend, I met John Waters - proving what I've always said: you meet the best people on field trips.

Children would only get in the way of our erotic lifestyle!

If there's a heaven, I would probably go. I've actually a very nice person.

You don't have to tell anybody a damn thing you don't want to.

But some things are the same. My mother still owns the house I grew up in, on what would now be called a cul de sac, but which the sign on the corner called a dead end street.

Be practical, be skillful, be teachable, and you will be successful.

History is made by those who see beyond what already exists. They see all the things that don’t yet.

Never give up on what you really want to do. The person with big dreams is more powerful than the one with all the facts.

I find beauty in the grotesque, like most artists.

A big mirror to exercise in front of is essential.

The first assistant director is just so important that the choice of that person is critical to the movie.

Taxi drivers all over the world, by the way, are under Newspaper Guild contract to give easy quotes to foreign correspondents.

You cannot have strong leadership without passion.

No one escapes from a war. No one. Not even the survivors. You accept things that would appall you at any other time because life has temporarily lost all meaning.

People who believe themselves to be the incarnation of good have a distorted view of the world.