Make Trouble

From an icon of popular culture, here is inspiring advice for artists, graduates, and all who seek happiness and success on their own terms.

So what if you have talent? Then what?

When John Waters delivered his gleefully subversive advice to the graduates of the Rhode Island School of Design, the speech went viral, in part because it was so brilliantly on point about making a living as a creative person. Now we can all enjoy his sly wisdom in a manifesto that reminds us, no matter what field we choose, to embrace chaos, be nosy, and outrage our critics.

Anyone embarking on a creative path, he tells us, would do well to realize that pragmatism and discipline are as important as talent and that rejection is nothing to fear. Waters advises young people to eavesdrop, listen to their enemies, and horrify us with new ideas. In other words, MAKE TROUBLE

Illustrated with slightly demented line drawings by Eric Hanson, Make Trouble is a one-of-a-kind gift, the perfect playbook for gaming the system by making the system work for you.

John Waters is a filmmaker, writer, actor, and visual artist best known for his films, including Pink Flamingos, Serial Mom, and Hairspray, which was adapted into a long-running Broadway musical. The author of seven books, among them the New York Times bestsellers Role Models and Carsick, he performs his one-man, spoken-word shows regularly in the United States and abroad. Waters lives in Baltimore, Maryland.