ACTING. "I don't know why I like acting. Sometimes I like it, sometimes I don't. It's not like it's the greatest, most rewarding thing you can do in life. It's strange when you think about it. Most of the time you're saying somebody else's words as opposed to your own, and that's pretty weird. It doesn't make for a very stable brain and it doesn't make for a very relaxed person."
BAND. "I don't have a band anymore, but I still write and I still play guitar. What I was planning to do when I got Elm Street, my first movie, was just do the movie and then keep going with the band. But the band broke up when I put them on hold for six weeks, eight weeks, whatever it was. They couldn't deal with that, and I understand that. I miss playing on stage. I miss the feeling that you have, that sort of camaraderie that a band has. But I don't regret anything. I think that everything worked out the way it was supposed to."
CRY-BABY. "Cry-Baby, as it's being billed, is the ultimate juvenile-delinquent musical comedy. It's saying that what people would perceive as bad in not always... what somebody appears to be is not necessarily what they are. I play Cry-Baby, the leader of the Drapes gang, who sort of falls in love with the queen of the Squares - it's classic Romeo and Juliet, only John Waters twisted."
DOC SEVERINSEN. "I think Doc has a fantastic moustache and is one of the best - kept secrets in Hollywood. I would love to spend a couple of days rummaging through his closet, looking especially for the clothes he wore in the early 70's."
EDWARD SCISSORHANDS. "Edward Scissorhands is about a guy who's sort of an innocent placed into a normal - or what people think is normal - suburban life. It's the story of his delimma and what he goes through."
FISH STICKS. "There's no doubt in my mind that Mrs. Paul's makes a fish stick that is without equal. After a hard day of work, I'm sure they bring a lot of joy and happiness into many American homes. Of course, that's just my opinion."
GAS. He'd be pumping if he wasn't a star, John Waters has been known saying.
HAIR. He dyed his hair black for his role in Edward Scissorhands.
IGGY POP. "When I was a kid, when I was 12, 13, 14, my heroes weren't baseball players and football players. My heroes were Alice Cooper, Iggy Pop, Aerosmith and Kiss and all that sort of strange rock and roll that was going on at that time. Working with Iggy on Cry-Baby was sort of like working with one of your childhood heroes. He played my step-grandfather, so it was great to have him as a father figure. One really great thing was that Iggy and I were on the same floor of the hotel, and we'd get together and play guitar all the time. He's a really smart guy."
JUMP STREET. "My feeling is that it's done about all it can do. It was a good idea initially, but I don't necessarily believe that cops in schools is right or fair - I think that's a little bit fascist - but it was a good idea in terms of helping people. It could put things in perspective not only for kids but for their parents. They came up with some neat ideas and tackled some interesting issues. But at this point it's hard not to be repetitive. You know, what more can we do? How many more schools are in our jurisdiction? How long before we're found out? I mean, you can take artistic license to a point, but after that it becomes surreal."
KAFKA. " I like Franz Kafka. Anybody who writes about a guy turning giant waterbug is really a good writer. But Jack Kerouac is my favorite; he's always been a big hero of mine. J.D. Salinger - I think he's great. I like Charles Bukowski too - he's very open and honest about everything. I like a lot of differnt writers. I love to read."
LEARNING. "I don't think you can ever learn enough. If I had time, I'd still be studying acting. I did study for a little while at a place called the Loft Studio in LA I still read books on acting and everything."
MARY. "What every one called each other on the set of Cry-Baby. Don't ask me why."
NARCOLEPSY. "I thought I might have had it at one point in my life, but I found out that I was just really bored."
OTHER ACTORS. "I guess I sort of like the obvious ones. I think Robert DeNiro is the most incredible actor around. Marlon Brando has always been great, and he has the best outlook on this business - he thinks that it's just a joke. It basically is. He doesn't take it seriously at all. It's sort of a way to get paid a lot of money. I also like Eric Roberts. The Pope of Greenwich Village was one of my favorite movies ever."
PU-PU PLATTER. "My musical taste is sort of a pu-pu platter combination of things. I like Pagues, The Replacements, Frank Sinatra and Louis Armstrong. And I still love the old stiuff - The Clash, The Sex Pistols, Iggy and David Bowie."
QUITTING ACTING. "I think I'll act ubtil I make enough money to buy my own planet and move onto it. Uh, no as long as I can keep doing stuff that I want to do and have fun."
REBELLION. "When certain things come out about an actor's past or about his life, they immediately put a label on you, something that is marketable for them. The people that wear the suits and sign the checks need something to sell, a product, they need to call it something.The term rebel is what kills me. It's such a played out thing. It's all so stupid. I would imagine it was a good word about 200 yeras ago, but now it's such a joke!"
SAL. "Sal would be great in movies. He's got a lot of different sort of character - type things that he does. He's not normal. He's really fun."
TAXIDERMY. "I have witnessed and heard about people having their pets stuffed - dogs and cats, etc. - and it's fascinating to me that these people loved their anumals so much that they would want to pet their filthy, rotting, lifeless pelts postmortem."
UNDERARM HAIR. (My God What Is This? Lol!) "I remember when my friend Sal first sprouted underarm hair. We were about 11, and I was very jealous. I still hold a grudge."
VISION. "To be a good director you have to have a really string vision, like John or Tim Burton, and you have to be open enough so that the actor is allowed to use his own stuff and is own ideas and is not used as a puppet, as a tool."
WATERS. "When John Waters first wrote me and told me he was writing Cry-Baby, he sent me a tape of Hairspary. I watched that and thought it was really great. But I had already seen Pink Flamingos and Female Trouble, so I expected him to be some really off- the - wall guy, to put tacks under your chair just so he can get a laugh, just for his own personal weirdness. But he's not at all what someone would think hewould be, He's really smart, and he has a solid vision of what he wants. We got real close on the movie. He's one of my best friends."