It is a peculiarity, perhaps, of American life that artists like Robert Crumb, who influence millions, are on the fringes of the human sexual spectrum. Perhaps it is that tension between themselves and the rest of society that powers the creative spark. Growing up in a Catholic background, Waters said he got great satisfaction when his movies earned the condemnation of the Catholic Church. Waters denies he's influencing anybody with the decidedly offbeat sex and violence in his films. It seems that many artists don't believe in conventional morality, and in some cases they have been victims of conventional morality.
Art is a way of fighting back.
He enjoys the idea of people paying him money to scratch and sniff the smell of a fart. Movies surely offer more than just petty revenge, but rather they are a way to hammer away at the hypocrisies of our time. Waters' films are like guerilla warfare in this siege. Movies provide a means to achieve not mere sufferance for the moral outcasts, but tolerance, at last even acceptance. As for his own childhood influences, Waters cited director William Castle.