John Waters Quotes

The happiest moments of my childhood were when my toys broke, because then I could destroy them with impunity.

Like my father, I would never as a child throw anything away, keeping old toys, electric motors and bits of broken machines under my bed in what I called my Box of Useful Things.

And oddly, when I was a kid I used to look at junkyards and I wanted to have one of my own.

I was obsessed with the Loch Ness Monster, I would look through these books in the library and dream about visiting Loch Ness one day… That stuff was really kind of what I loved as a kid.

My mother is a huge fan of my work. I told her about 'Coraline' long before the film was made, and she got the book and read it. She reminded me that when I was about five years old, I used to sit in the kitchen for hours and talk about my 'other' family in Africa, my other mother and father. I had totally forgotten that.

Growing up, my mom made us this amazing thing called The Mack Theatrical Wardrobe. It was a massive trunk filled with everything that you'd want as a kid if you were into imagination and play.

I was quiet, a loner. I was one of those children where, if you put me in a room and gave me some crayons and a pencils, you wouldn't hear from me for nine straight hours. And I was always drawing racing cars and rockets and spaceships and planes, things that were very fast that would take me away.

When I was a kid, and I was watching TV, I just loved it so much that I wanted to crawl into that TV.

I wanted to be a part of the Disney history.

In my imagination yes, I remember, when I was six years old, I was conducting all this concert in my house. But now it's real.

Pretend was a big part of my childhood.

My first-ever concert was the Barney concert when I was, like, six. My mum took me because I was obsessed with Barney. Barney was actually my first crush... He's, like, literally better than all the guys in the whole world.

Barbie has always been an inspiration. Dressing her was part of ever girl's dream.

My friend Jim Parrack is in 'Child of God,' and we grew up together. Back then, we would watch old movies and go reenact them at a Blockbuster or a supermarket. We'd end up getting in trouble because you can't reenact movies. People think you're crazy.

I do hear from people at my exhibition about seeing these things made from this toy from their childhood, and it brings them back. They'll go and buy a set of Lego from the gift shop because of that nostalgia and seeing it at the art exhibition.

My parents read me fairy tales every night and I used to believe I was a fairytale princess, like every young girl. I had all the Disney dressing-up costumes and would play every character.

I feel really lucky that I grew up pretending to be a spy for my whole childhood.

Because I wanted to have a place that I could create everything that I that I never had as a child. So, you see rides. You see animals. There's a movie theater.

I loved make-believe. I was the child in the cupboard playing with my Barbies.

At 3 years old, I was imitating and doing fun little commercials for the family. Then at 5, I knew, 'OK, this is something I really like.' At 8, I was crying in front of the mirror and my mom was like, 'Oh boy, here we go. We know what she's going to do.'

Storybooks were always a big part of my imagination, and my childhood and adolescence.

I remember pretending to be the characters in the movies when I was a little kid.

'Star Wars' was everything for me. As a little kid, you get to see the movies only once or twice, but playing with the toys in your backyard, that's where you're first telling stories in your head.

We had a thing there where you could turn in - it was some sort of recycling program - the bottle caps of RC Cola. You'd turn in 12 of them, and you'd get a ticket to see a movie. That's how I started going to the movies. Running around the neighborhood looking for bottle caps. We were like little scavengers.

I was raised going to the movies with my grandmother as a kid. And then I'd come home, and my best friend and I would act out the films that we saw.