"King, tried in fires of woe! Men hunger for thy grace: And through the night I go, Loving thy mournful face. Yet, when the city sleeps; When all the cries are still: The stars and heavenly deeps Work out a perfect will."

"Our wearier spirit faints, Vexed in the world‘s employ: His soul was of the saints; And art to him was joy."

"Vanquished in life, his death By beauty made amends: The passing of his breath Won his defeated ends."

"Which are more full of fate: The stars; or those sad eyes? Which are more still and great: Those brows; or the dark skies?"

"Alone he rides, alone, The fair and fatal king: Dark night is all his own, That strange and solemn thing."

"Now from the broken tower, what solemn bell still tolls, Mourning what piteous death? Answer, O saddened souls! Who mourn the death of beauty and the death of grace."

"Imageries of dreams reveal a gracious age: Black armour, falling lace, and altar lights at morn. The courtesy of saints, their gentleness and scorn, Lights on an earth more fair, than shone from Plato's page: The courtesy of knights, fair calm and sacred rage: The courtesy of love, sorrow for love's sake borne. Vanished, those high conceits! Desolate and forlorn, We hunger against hope for the lost heritage."

"What comes now? The earth awaits What fierce wonder from the skies? Thunder, trampling through the night? Morning, with illustrious eyes? Morning, from the springs of light: Thunder, round Heaven's opening gates.."

"The winds are sometimes sad to me, The starry spaces, full of fear; Mine is the sorrow on the sea, And mine the sigh of places drear. Some players upon plaintive strings Publish their wistfulness abroad; I have not spoken of these things, Save to one man, and unto God."

"Ill times may be; she hath no thought of time: She reigns beside the waters yet in pride. Rude voices cry: but in her ears the chime Of full, sad bells brings back her old springtide. Like to a queen in pride of place, she wears The splendour of a crown in Radcliffe's dome. Well fare she, well! As perfect beauty fares; And those high places, that are beauty's home."

"All the best stories in the world are but one story in reality — the story of an escape. It is the only thing which interests us all and at all times — how to escape."

"Let those whose Hearts and Hands are strong Tell eager Tales of mighty Deeds; Enough if my sequestered song To hush'd and twilight Gardens leads! Clear Waters, drawn from secret Wells Perchance may fevered Lips assuage; The Tales an elder Pilgrim tells To such as go on Pilgrimage. Such the soft Path my Words would trace, Thus with the moving Waters move; So leave, across the Ocean's Face, A glimmering Stair to Hope and Love."

"I must consider," said Monica with a smile, "but one can't do these things offhand--that is worse than doing nothing. I'll tell you what to do NOW. Why not go and stay with Aunt Anne? She would like to see you, I know, and I have always thought it rather lazy of you not to go there--she is rather a remarkable woman, and it's a pretty country. Have you ever been there?"

"Good and beautiful things may easily be spoiled by suggestions of rights and duties"

"In literature, in art, in life, I think that the only conclusions worth coming to are one's own conclusions . If they march with the verdict of the connoisseurs , so much the better for the connoisseurs ; if they do not so march , so much the better for oneself."

"Animal rights acitivists always say to me, "How could you kill a chicken for a movie?" Well, I eat chicken and I know the chicken didn't land on my plate from a heart attack. We bought the chicken from a farmer who advertised freshly killed chicken. I think we made the chicken's life better. It got to be in a movie, it got fucked, and then right after filming the next take, the cast ate the chicken!"

"Waters might, once upon a time, have been a candidate to be the American Buñuel, especially when he had the raw hatred of Divine under his command..."

"We watched everything...A family favorite was Cry-Baby starring Johnny Depp. Whenever the John Waters film broke out in song, we would all scream and start singing, too."

"If you go home with someone and they don't have books, don't fuck them."

"Cheer up. You never know — maybe something awful will happen tomorrow."

"Going to a sensational murder trial is the only way I can relax."

"All people look better under arrest."

"I stopped taking drugs when I realized that pot smelled bad and LSD trips were becoming like TV reruns. I had had enough inner journeys — I felt I knew myself well enough, thank you."

"I would never want to live anywhere but Baltimore... It's as if every eccentric in the South decided to move north, ran out of gas in Baltimore, and decided to stay. No one moves here."

"I'd never trust anyone who hadn't spent at least one night of his youth in the local jail. The more hell you raise as a teen-ager, the sweeter your memories will be."

"Parents should worry if their children haven't been arrested by the time they turn sixteen. Being a juvenile delinquent is a birthright and as much a part of healthy adolescence as smoking cigarettes or getting pimples."

"I'll never be able to do a sequel to Pink Flamingos because it would have to end with Divine taking a shit and the dog eating it."

"Life is nothing without a good sense of humor."

""How could you think of such awful things?" liberal critics always ask. "How else could I possibly amuse myself?" I always wonder."

"[I] pride myself on the fact that my work has no socially redeeming value."

"I would never want to film hard-core pornography, because it always looks like open-heart surgery to me."

"To understand bad taste one must have very good taste."

"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."

"And we can cuddle all night!"

"We're husky, we're hairy, we're homosexual, and out of the second closet."

"I've always tried to push things to the limit, but when I started, the censors to be feared were old, conservative, religious men, whereas today the censors are young, rich, liberal men who seem to be against the freedom of expression I fought for. [...] people should be able to have an opinion they don't agree with and still be friends, have a dialogue, or argue about it."

"To me, camp is two older queens talking about Rita Hayworth under a Tiffany's lampshade."

"Wouldn't you rather your kid be a drug dealer than a drug addict?"

"Tommy: I just wanna see more of you!"

"Giace l'alta Cartago; appena i segni Dell'alte sue ruine il lido serba. Muojono le città, muojono i regni; Copre i fasti e le pompe arena ed erba; E l'uomo d'esser mortal par che si sdegni: O nostra mente cupida e superba!"

"No man in the world was ever born with a greater genius and more qualified for epic poetry."

"I found that I had an affinity with writers like Ariosto and Tasso, at least to the extent of loving their poetry. (“Those allegories of Ariosto and Tasso were in some ways very futuristic with those fantastic voyages-they were almost like science fiction without the science.”) Of course they didn't really have science to use. But they had a similarly disciplined imagination."

"The most excellent of modern poets, ... whom I reverence next to Virgil."

"The day of fortune is like a harvest day, We must be busy when the corn is ripe."

"It is the fortunate who should extol fortune."

"Fortune rarely accompanies anyone to the door."

"Cogliam d'Amor la rosa: amiamo or quando Esser si puote riamato amando."

"Deh mira (egli cantò) spuntar la rosa Dal verde suo modesta e verginella; Che mezzo aperta ancora, e mezzo ascosa, Quanto si mostra men, tanto è più bella. Ecco poi nudo il sen già baldanzosa Dispiega: ecco poi langue, e non par quella, Quella non par che desiata innanti Fu da mille donzelle e mille amanti.'Così trapassa al trapassar d'un giorno Della vita mortale il fiore, e 'l verde: Nè, perchè faccia indietro April ritorno, Si rinfiora ella mai, nè si rinverde."

"Chè sovente addivien che 'l saggio e 'l forte Fabbro a se stesso è di beata sorte."

"Ha sotto i piedi il Fato e la Natura, Ministri umíli, e 'l moto, e chi 'l misura."