Meet the Author, er, Raconteur: John Waters

Acclaimed spinner-of -yarns and overall cool dude John Waters shares more of himself in MR. KNOW-IT-ALL: The Tarnished Wisdom of a Filth Elder.

No one knows more about everything—especially everything rude, clever, and offensively compelling—than John Waters. The man in the pencil-thin mustache, auteur of the transgressive movie classics Pink Flamingos, Polyester, the original Hairspray, Cry-Baby, and A Dirty Shame, is one of the world’s great sophisticates, and in MR. KNOW-IT-ALL he serves it up raw: how to fail upward in Hollywood; how to develop musical taste from Nervous Norvus to Maria Callas; how to build a home so ugly and trendy that no one but you would dare live in it; more important, how to tell someone you love them without emotional risk; and yes, how to cheat death itself. Through it all, Waters swears by one undeniable truth: “Whatever you might have heard, there is absolutely no downside to being famous. None at all.”

A PW Best Book of Summer 2019!

Praise for MR. KNOW-IT-ALL:

“An exuberantly transgressive American filmmaker gets down, dirty, and weird about life, art, and career… Wickedly smart and consistently laugh-out-loud funny.”–Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“Though not quite as surreal, Waters’s musings are as funny and eccentric as his films; longtime fans will be delighted with the treasure trove of insights into his brilliant oeuvre.”–Publishers Weekly

“If you don’t laugh loud and often, check your pulse, then your breath on a mirror.”–Booklist

Also by John Waters:

ROLE MODELS
“An impressive, heartfelt collection by a true American iconoclast.”–Kirkus Reviews, starred review

CARSICK: John Waters Hitchhikes Across America
“Waters devotees take note: this is required reading.”–Publishers Weekly, starred review