Kevin Smith is a hero to guys between 17 and 33. If you're not one of them, you may never have heard of Smith-even though he has written and directed five independent features. His latest is 'Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back'.

More than anyone else of his generation, Smith, 31, has captured on film what it's like to be an angst-ridden, allergic-to-work, often foul-mouthed but always funny slacker. He writes what he knows. Except for being a slacker. No matter how much Smith protests, he loves to work-as long as it's not manning the register at a convenience store, the job that drove him to film school in the first place.

"I was a horrible blue-collar worker because I'm very lazy," the solidly-built Red Bank, New Jersey, native says. He is eating an Oreo cookie in his office near Burbank and downplaying his mini-mogul status.

"I do what I do because I don't want to work for a living," he alleges. "I never see it as work. My wife bugs me to take a vacation, but my life is one big vacation."

Writing a "Superman" script that Warner Bros. rejected might upset many writers, but Smith, a comic book creator himself, saw it "as a blast because I was dealing with bizarre, larger-then-life characters, and I got paid very well. But I'd much rather dwell in my (independent) world, where you rise and fall on your own merits."

Low-budget films pay less, but Smith has minimal needs. "If I can pay the bills, buy a couple hundred DVDs a month, feed the wife and clothe the kid (Harley Quinn, 2), I'm feeling fine," he says.

Smith is feeling slightly less fine right now because he has been stuck in Hollywood for months shooting and editing 'Jay & Bob'. He would much rather be back in his nice new house in Rumson, New Jersey, just down the road from his Red Bank office and his comic book store, Jay & Bob's Comic Stash.

"I choose to live where I grew up," says Smith, whose father worked at the post office. "I never felt the need to leave. I know how to get to the mall and back pretty easily."

However, the digital effects for 'Jay & Bob'needed to be done in Hollywood. And his celebrity-filled cast, including Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Chris Rock, Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill, could more easily drop by for their cameos.

'Jay & Bob' is the fifth and supposedly last of Smith's "New Jersey Chronicles," which have followed the adventures of a recurring cast of oddballs. 'Clerks' was a profane talkfest set in a convenience store. "Mallrats" moved on to life at the mall. 'Chasing Amy' dealt with comic book artists in love, but with a twist: straight guy falls for gay girl. 'Dogma' examined religion. This time Jay (played by Smith regular Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Smith himself), formerly the Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern of the group, are the focus. When these two hapless Gen-Xers find out that Hollywood is making a film based on their comic book alter egos, they head to California to sabotage the production. Their trip is filled with weirdly inventive activities, laced with lots of four-letter words.

"My mother can't stand that I'm known for profanity," says Smith, who is 15 minutes into the interview before he utters his first ****. "She feels like it reflects poorly on her, and I wasn't raised that way at all. When I was growing up, I'd have been beaten if I talked like that. But now that I'm an adult, I'm in charge of what comes out of my mouth."

What will be coming out in the future will have nothing to do with either Jay or Bob. "If I weren't so hellbent on moving on, I could write a 'Jay & Bob' movie every week," Smith says. "Jay gets to say stuff that people don't say in public. I could write this stuff till the grave, but I don't want to get to the point where what was once fresh and funny grows boring and stale." Smith does have one personal regret. "Once I'm off-camera, I'm sure I'll get really fat," he speculates. "But with the exception of comic books and a 'Clerks' cartoon movie off our failed 'Clerks' TV show, there will be no more Jay & Bob."

Instead, Smith is working on a script for 'Fletch Won' for Miramax. And he is writing a film about fatherhood. Harley makes her film debut in 'Jay & Bob', but according to Smith, "She was the worst actor I ever worked with. She was supposed to be playing baby Silent Bob, but the moment we yelled, 'Action,' she started screeching. If she becomes an actress, I'll disown her. I've known actresses." Smith used to date his 'Chasing Amy' star, Joey Lauren Adams, who makes a guest appearance in 'Jay & Bob'. But he married a journalist, former USA Today reporter Jennifer Schwalbach, whom he met in 1998 when she interviewed him. Schwalbach makes her film debut in 'Jay & Bob', as a member of a girl gang.

"When I showed her the script, she said, 'Can I be in it?'" Smith explains. "What am I going to do? Say no and risk never getting laid again?" Anyway, Smith doesn't consider himself an actor, even though he has played Silent Bob in all his films. "I can't act to save my life," he says. "I can't memorize dialogue, and I have terrible inflection." That's why Silent Bob is mostly silent. A high school graduate with a penchant for writing, Smith used to cut school Wednesday afternoons to go to the movies with his father. When working at the convenience store got too hateful, he tried film school in Vancouver but quit after four months to make 'Clerks' for $27,000. It won an award at the 1994 Sundance Film Festival and launched his career.

Smith may not have bought into the Hollywood ethos ("Celebrities-yuck," he says), but he does have an eye for talent. He cast a virtually unknown Ben Affleck as the romantic lead in 'Chasing Amy'. He transformed skateboard champion Jason Lee into an actor in 'Mallrats'. And he convinced Miramax to make the Oscar-winning 'Good Will Hunting'. "I know I have a finite career," he says, "so I'd just like to do as much as I can before it ends, before people grow tired of my B.S."