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His favorite childhood memory was seeing real blood on the seat of a wrecked car when visiting a scrap yard and fantasizing about lethal car crashes.

As a youth he would watch adult-only films at the local drive-in, with binoculars.

He is obsessed with true-crime and regularly attends gory trials all over the US, where he often sees the same faces in the public galleries.

Brother of Steve Waters.

Subscribes to more than 80 magazines. Also goes to see just about every movie that comes out and hardly ever rents movies.

Has taught classes at the Patuxent Institution, a correctional facility located halfway between Baltimore and Washington, D.C. The classes are meant as rehabilitation therapy for convicted killers, in which they learn to write about their violent fantasies rather than act them out.

Waters has always been very gracious in acknowledging his creative influences, such as Russ Meyer, Otto Preminger, Liberace, William Castle, Herschell Gordon Lewis, Jayne Mansfield, Robert Bresson, and Pier Paolo Pasolini.

As a youth, he made as much as $50 a week doing puppet shows for the neighborhood children, and was often hired to entertain at birthday parties. He stated that many of his puppet shows were inspired by the gimmick-heavy films of William Castle.

Bears such a strong resemblance to actor Steve Buscemi that as a joke, John Waters sent out cards with a photo of Buscemi made up to look like Waters.

Big fan of 1950s director Douglas Sirk and actually got to meet him while in Europe.

Grew his thin pencil-line mustache in honor of Little Richard.

Member of jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 1995.

Waters originally wanted a man named "Mr. Ray" to be the narrator of Pink Flamingos (1972). Mr. Ray was famous for his hair-weave radio ads and for his Baltimore accent. Mr. Ray refused, so Waters recorded the voice-over himself, imitating Mr. Ray's voice as "Mr. J."

There is a special section of his immense book collection devoted to Liberace.

Was supposed to have a cameo in American Splendor (2003), as the David Letterman guest holding a alligator.

"My hobby is extreme Catholic behavior -- BEFORE the Reformation." (2000)

"If you can make someone laugh who's dead set against you, that's the first step to winning them over to your side." (2000)

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

"Strive for art in reverse."

"To me, bad taste is what entertainment is all about. If someone vomits 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."

"I pride myself on the fact that my work has no socially redeeming value."

"I would love to make a movie for very neurotic children. But then perhaps, I've already done that. I've shown my films at children's birthday parties. They just love them, like Punch and Judy shows."

"Oh, Squeaky Fromme, where were you when we needed you?" (1977: when asked about Anita Bryant)

"As far as socially redeeming value, I hope I don't have any." (1983)

"I love Judy Garland, but if a reporter were coming to my home, I wouldn't have her music playing. A gay man loving Judy would be like a black person watching a minstrel show."

"Who on earth would want to assassinate Danny Thomas? It wouldn't even make the front page!"

"I'll never be able to do a sequel to Pink Flamingos (1972) because it would have to end with Divine taking a shit and the dog eating it."

"If someone threw up at one of my screenings, it would be like a standing ovation."

"My favorite movie idea is to do a movie where everything's fake -- the trees, the grass, even the sun."

"I would never do hard-core pornography, because it looks too much like open-heart surgery."

"As a child, I always wanted to sit in William Castle's lap, not Santa's!"

"I'm 100% gay and about 20% in gay society. Sometimes I'm more comfortable in punk rock clubs than gay clubs. There are just as many rules I rebel from in the gay world as the straight one. I'm gaily incorrect, but I do vote gay." "Sometimes I wish I was a woman, just so that I could get an abortion."

"A movie star is someone you want to either get drunk with or have sex with."

"No matter what your sexual preference or gender, no one likes a man who is fussy about his looks. You can spend as much time as you want looking good. But don't do it in public."

"I've always wanted to sell out. The problem's been, no one's ever wanted to buy me."

"I don't trust anyone who hasn't been arrested at least once."

"What year was that? [1972] Oh, I was on LSD. I wasn't paying attention."

"I don't need THAT to not vote for George Bush!" (When asked if Bush's opposition to gay marriage will sway his vote)

"Nobody ever really felched anybody."

"Everyone in the audience was on drugs, everyone in the movies themselves were on drugs, and I was on drugs when I thought them up."

"Pink Flamingos was made as a crime, almost. Nobody gave me a headshot for that movie. The guy with the singing asshole just came up and showed me."

"If you are unlucky enough to be heterosexual and persist in having affairs anyway, make sure they are with a blood relation, preferabley your mother or father."

"I guess I have slept with people after the movie, but not during. It's not a good idea. Because the other cast members immediately realize it and hate you. Hahahaha!"

"To me, bad taste is what entertainment is all about."

"Without obsession, life is nothing."

"Moving [to New York] proves that you believe in irony."

"Stylists have ruined everything. . . Nobody wants to be Bjork. I love Bjork. We need Bjork." - (On the awfully boring show of good taste on this year's Academy Awards' red carpet)

Divine

The actor known as Divine was born Harris Glenn Milstead on October 19, 1945 in Towson, Maryland, a suburb of Baltimore to father Harris Bernard and mother Diana Frances.

At the age of 12, the Milsteads moved to Lutherville, another nearby district, just six houses from a boy the same age named John Waters. Years later, John and Glenn would thrive off each other's talents to achieve notoriety and eventually fame.

Glenn was a fat boy, always being picked on by the other boys at school for being plump and effeminate. In high school, his interests fell around horticulture, cosmetology and of course, acting. He worked for five or six years as a hairdresser, eventually running his own salon, a gift from his generous, lenient and naive parents. Generous because of all the gifts he received over the years, lenient because of the lack of punishment he received after destroying their gifts and squandering the family's money, and naive because it would be many years into his career as an actor before they realized exactly what was going on. Their relationship with Glenn broke down over the years, to the point where the Milsteads fled to Florida. But towards the end of Glenn's life, after he'd become world-renown as Divine, he and his parents patched things up a bit.

Around 1966, Glenn was cast in his first Waters film, being remodeled by John and his makeup artist, Van Smith, into the horror show that would forever be known as Divine. Through Waters' films, Divine became synonymous with vile, repulsive acts with an attitude to match. But throughout his career, he longed for a way out of that mask, wig and dress, and in fact, did play a few roles out of drag. Not only did he act, but through somewhat coincidental circumstances, Divine had a brief career as a disco recording star and club attraction. The first of these records were made with sleazy New York producer Bobby Orlando, famous for producing Pet Shop Boys' first flops. After Orlando, Divine worked with the Stock-Aitken-Waterman team who's roster included Kylie Minogue and Dead or Alive.

Due to his weight, Divine had a plethora of problems with his body including a sleeping disorder termed sleep apnea in which chronic violent snoring results in memory loss, mood swings, heart attacks and strokes. His weight, among other problems, led him through cycles of depression. He was also reportedly addicted to marijuana, passing out where he sat, exhausted from pot and chronic insomnia.

At age 42, he was just about to branch into television when he met his demise in Southern California. He'd broken his habit of pot smoking, been widely praised by fans and the press for his role as Edna Turnblad in John Waters' Hairspray, and was finally going to play a role out of drag on network television. The Fox program, Married With Children, had booked Divine to play Bundy relative, Uncle Otto - a character Fox hoped would become a regular. He did not show up on the set. His personal manager, Bernard Jay, discovered him dead in his hotel suite - Mr. Jay swears Divine died of happiness, a state he finally achieved the morning of March 7, 1988.

Biography from DreamlandNews.com