I've so enjoyed the essays in Role Models by John Waters that I find I'm waiting to finish two remaining pieces because I don't want the deliriously campy but so spot-on insights to end. Just when you think he's so over the top you can't relate, you realize that, in fact, you can. On so many different levels. Dismiss him if you will, but I find that beneath his unabashed love of flamboyant filth, he has more sense of the way things actually are than...well...many other writers who fancy themselves quite sensible.
A few moments from his essay collection that had me at the proverbial hello:
"Cy Twombly doesn't suffer fools. I've always said true success is figuring out your life and career so you never have to be around jerks." -from the essay "Roommates"
"I've jitterbugged with Richard Serra, eaten Thanksgiving dinner with Lana Turner, had tea with Princess Yasmin Aga Khan, gone out drinking with Clint Eastwood, and spent several New Year's Eve parties in Valentino's chalet in Gstadd, but what I like best is staying home and reading." -from the essay "Book Worm"
"Being rich is not about how much money you have or how many homes you own; it's the freedom to buy any book you want without looking at the price and wondering if you can afford it. Of course, you have to read the books, too. Nothing is more impotent than an unread library." -from the essay "Book Worm"
"I love how mad Mike's work can make some people. Isn't that the job of contemporary art? To infuriate? The real naysayers who can't see the reverse beauty of Mike's sculptures or paintings should be outraged because they secretly know that his art does hate them and they deserve it." -from the essay "Roommates"
There is so much more, obviously, to this essay collection than these seemingly elitist (out of context, seemingly more so...when taken as a whole, they are simply ribald and real) snippets suggest. I'll finish it up in the next few days and might be back for more. Highly recommended as a respite from long fiction if you're in need of it.