Kevin Smith dishes advice in his new memoir

NEW YORK - Kevin Smith says he has learned a lot of tough lessons in the two decades since breaking into the film industry with his indie hit “Clerks,” and now he wants to pass them on.

“Tough Sh*t: Life Advice From a Fat, Lazy Slob Who Did Good,” Smith’s fourth book, hits the shelves on Tuesday in the United States. In it, Smith focuses mainly on the highs and lows of the last five years of his career. He also talks about why he will retire from directing and his future plans.

“Film is one of the only art forms where you’re like, ‘I want to express something, give me $20 million and Ben Affleck in order to do it.’ I’ve done that,” he told Reuters.

Smith, 41, made “Clerks” for under $30,000 at the local convenience store where he worked. The movie went on to win awards, was acquired for distribution by Miramax Films and pulled in over $3 million in theaters.

Since then, the New Jersey-born Smith has written and directed films including “Dogma,” “Chasing Amy,” and “Zach and Miri Make a Porno.” Some were acclaimed, while others, like “Mall Rats,” were panned.

He vowed he is working on only one more live-action feature: “Hit Somebody,” a story that follows the life of a Canadian hockey player from 1950 to 1980. After that, he plans to focus mainly on podcasting and his Internet radio station, SModcast.

“Podcasting is the democratization of entertainment. It really blurs the line between the entertainer and the entertained,” he said.

Smith has built a large online following, and “Tough Sh*t” started as a number of tweet responses to questions from some of his more than two million Twitter followers.

“If you could figure out how to monetize passion, and that’s pretty much what I do, then you’ve got your handle on something. Basically, I just kind of speak passionately about the stuff that I dig, and that creates content,” he said. Reuters