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.
John WatersRead
You should never read just for "enjoyment." Read to make yourself smarter! Less judgmental. More apt to understand your friends' insane behavior, or better yet, your own. Pick "hard books." Ones you have to concentrate on while reading. And for god's sake, 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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Reading should be an active pursuit for knowledge and understanding, not just passive enjoyment.
In this quote, John Waters emphasizes the importance of reading as a means to enrich the mind and develop empathy. He challenges the notion that reading should be confined to non-fiction, underscoring that fiction also conveys profound truths and insights into human behavior and relationships. By advocating for hard books that require concentration, he suggests that growth and understanding stem from engaging with complex narratives.
Themes
ReadingEducationFictionUnderstandingEmpathyKnowledge
In practice
Example use cases
During a book club meeting, this quote could inspire members to choose more challenging books.
More from John Waters
All quotes →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.
John WatersRead
I don't like rules of any kind. And I seek people who break rules with happiness - and not bringing pain to themselves.
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I believe if you come out of a movie and the first thing you say is, 'The cinematography was beautiful,' it's a bad movie.
John WatersRead
To understand bad taste one must have very good taste.
John WatersRead
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 WatersRead
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