ANDREW WARHOLA QUOTE PAGE


"Pop Art works by the opposite means to the same result; using content so blatant, so "what it is," it, too ends by being uninterpretable... Once upon a time (say, for Dante), it must have been a revolutionary and creative move to design works of art so that they might be experienced on several levels. Now it is not. It reinforces the principal of redundancy that is the principal affliction of modern life."

"...And you said you thought that coming so close to death was really like coming so close to life, because life is nothing."

"The more you look at the exact same thing, the more the meaning goes away, and the better and emptier you feel."

"Who wants the truth? That's what show business is for, to prove that it's not what you are that counts, it's what they think you are."

"The most exciting thing is not doing it. If you fall in love with someone and never do it, it's much more exciting,"

"I'm sure I'm going to look in the mirror and see nothing. People are always calling me a mirror and if a mirror looks into a mirror, what is there to see?"

"I never read, I just look at pictures."

"So on the one hand I really believe in empty spaces, but on the other hand, because I'm still making some art, I'm still making junk for people to put in their spaces that I believe should be empty: i.e. I'm helping people waste their space when what I really want to do is help them empty their space."

"All my films are artificial. But then everything is sort of artificial. I don't know where the artificial stops and the real begins"

"I'd prefer to remain a mystery. I never like to give my background and, anyway, I make it all up different every time I'm asked. It's not just that it's part of my image not to tell everything, it's just that I forget what I said the day before, and I have to make it all up over again."

"In the future, everybody will be world famous for 15 minutes."

"I had a lot of dates but I decided to stay home and dye my eyebrows."

"I want to invent a new kind fast food, and I was thinking, what about a waffle thing that had the food on one side and the drink on the other - like ham and Coke? You could eat and drink at the same time."

"After work I just stayed in. Watched 20/20 and instead of saying, "In the future everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes," it was so funny to hear Hugh Downs say, "As Andy Warhol once said, in fifteen minutes everybody will be famous." People on TV always get some part wrong, like - "In the future fifteen people will be famous."

"Commercial things really do stink. As soon as it becomes commercial for a mass market it really stinks. I know I always rave and say my favorite movies are things like The Other Side of Midnight and The Betsy, but I guess I'm going to change my tune. You have to do stuff that average people don't understand, because those are the only good things. And even though the arty foreign movies are boring to sit through, at least they try to do creative things. So I'm going to start going to the New Yorker and seeing strange movies again. I'm missing so much, going to parties."

"Picked up Catherine and we went over to Regine's. Paloma Picasso was there with her husband and her boyfriend. Or his boyfriend. Or their boyfriend. I don't know how that one works."

"They had an orchestra and all the old bags were out on the floor doing the foxtrot, and there's always that one seventy-five or eighty-year-old lady who gets out there and is the first to start really jumping. These old bags still want men to go to bed with them. They look like the ladies at Bonnie & Clyde, that dyke bar downtown where every table it's women who look like anybody's mother."

"There's so much in the papers about Ronald Reagan, and it looks like he's on his way to become president, it does look scary. I voted once. In the fifties, I don't remember which election. I pulled the wrong lever because I was confused, I couldn't figure out how to work the thing. There was no practice model outside; it was a church on 35th Street between Park and Lex. This was when I was living at 242 Lexington. And then I got called for jury duty and I wrote back: "Moved". I've never voted again."

"I met someone on the street who said wasn't it great that we're going to have a movie star for president, that it was so Pop, and (laughs) when you think about it like that, it is great, it's so American."

"Victor gave me a call and said that he'd been with some Amsterdam boys and that everybody's afraid of getting the gay cancer so now they fuck with their big toe. Now it's (laughs) whoever has the biggest toe. He said, "It's wild."

"Every night they have him on saying he wants to die, he wants to die." Dec. 2 1976

"It was everything creamy I'm not suppose to eat." -Dec. 5, 1976

"After the trip upstairs, though, she dropped me, I guess she saw me in the light." -Dec. 6, 1976

"It's the wrong town, everyone's gay." -Dec. 6, 1976

"In the book she says something like, "I had to get away from Jackson and I ran as far as possible." So do you know where she went? (laughs) Sag Harbor. He lived in Springs. So that's- what? Six miles? And she was making it like she went to the other side of the world. And then she said, "The phone rang- how oh how did he ever find me?" I'm sure she called hundreds of people to give them the number in case he asked them." -Dec. 12, 1976

"Andrea was just sitting there waiting for Kristofferson to notice her, but he was busy." -Dec. 23, 1976

"The decorations and the food and the house were just like a spread in McCall's or House and Garden, like what a house should look on Christmas." -Dec. 25, 1976

"Ninety-year-old Kitty Miller was there, she's still putting blue shoe polish in her hair." -Dec. 25, 1976

"The turkey had been cut up like a magazine would tell you to before it got to the table, so it was like a Turkey Puzzle." -Dec. 25, 1976

"Kitty was drunk and when the Spanish ambassador said a few words she screamed, "I can't speak Spanish!"." -Dec. 25, 1976

"Got the invitation to President Carter's inaugural. It was addressed to (laughs) "Mr. And Mrs. Andy Warhol." Don't you love it?" -Dec. 27, 1976 (For those of you who don't know, Andy Warhol was gay and never married.)

"Actually it was so much fun to do- to kiss ninety-year-old Elsie Woodward and say, "Happy New Year, darling."." Dec. 31, 1976

"Felt itchy and found a crab. Looked for more." -Jan. 14, 1977

"Looked for crabs, still." -Jan. 15, 1977

"Went back to the hotel to try to buy A-200 to kill the crabs." -Jan. 16, 1977

"Bought crab soap." -Jan 17, 1977

"Used crab soap, it didn't work." -Jan 17, 1977 (later that day)

"There's no history to this place, it goes back twenty-five years. There were like eight rooms, one had three coins in the whole room. Think there was one room that Alexander left some pots in. Alexander the Great- three pots and four coins." -Jan. 17, 1977 (earlier that day.)

"We were always late because it was always so boring we weren't in a hurry." -Jan. 18, 1977 (the 15-20th Warhol was in Kuwait.)

"I asked him what he would have been doing if he hadn't been doing that, anyway, so what did it matter if it wasn't necessary?" -Feb 2, 1977

"I never know what I want until I see what I don't want." -Feb 2, 1977

"He was so ugly and she was so beautiful- I was disappointed." -Feb 17, 1977

"I took him over to a piece of sculpture and told him that I'd done it, which I didn't- didn't get found out till afterwards." -Feb 21, 1977

"I lost my concentration and had to stop peeing." -Feb 23, 1977

"The thing is, I guess, in that long amount of time, everybody's real personality just comes out and it's too revealing of how boring they are." -Mar. 13, 1977

“Mrs. Astor said she wished she had a tail so should could shake hands with people and hold cocktails and put on lipstick all at once.” –April 20, 1977

“All Fred’s chic antiques are looking more and more like just junk covered in rags.” –May 25, 1977

“They fought for the rest of the night. It was so French.” –May 27, 1977

“I told him to start coming on the sheets and bring them in and we’d have an exhibit together in Victor’s loft- his Come paintings and my Piss.”- June 29, 1977

“A nun come over to me to autograph a bottle but my pen didn’t work. She said she’d just gotten out of an operation and that seeing me was the most exciting moment of her life since she won $500 in the church lottery. (laughs) I mean, if these are high points for a nun…” –June 30, 1977

“Bought a “fairy shirt” that has my name on it. It’s just a list of names of people who’re gay all over it like Thoreau, Alexander the Great, Halston, me- but they have Richard Avedon on it… I’ve never heard he was a queer.” –July 2, 1977

“Suddenly it all started to make sense- the blond hair poofed up, the walk, the women’s clothes- he was gay!” –July 5, 1977

“By the way, Valerie has been seen hanging around the Village and last week when I was cruising there with Victor, I was scared I’d run into her and that would be a really weird thing. What would happen? Would she want to shoot me again? Would she try to be friendly?” –July 8, 1977 (Valerie Solanis shot Andy in the chest three times almost killing him.)

“Julia started doing what I hate more than anything, patting my head all the time.” –July 10, 1977 (He didn’t like to be touched.)

“I don’t understand these girls, they talk and say things and I don’t know what they’re doing.” –July 10, 1977

“The producers gave her three days off, she said, so I took that to mean she must have been driving them crazy.” –July 10, 1977

“This was the moment these actors had been waiting all their lives for- to make the show go on.” –July 13, 1977 (Andy was at a play when the rolling blackout hit NYC and the actors kept acting in the dark.)

“ “This is the most thrilling thing that’s happened to me, passing Andy Warhol in the dark.” .” –July 13, 1977 (An actor said of Andy Warhol)

“On TV the reporters showed the looting, they had TV crews right there, filming the looters, and the lights from the TV enabled them to see better to steal more. It was like the TV people asked them where they were going to steal next to they could set up. On TV they’re all chained together and they’re all black and Puerto Rican. It looks like Roots.” –July 14, 1977 (Again, with the blackouts in NYC)

“Son of Sam is nostalgia, almost. Goes after long brown-haired girls.” –July 16, 1977

“What would Emily Post do?” –July 18, 1977

“…a cab stopped and I really wanted one, but since it had stopped for me I was suspicious to get in and didn’t.” –July 18, 1977

“Athletes really do have the fat in the right places and they’re young in the right places.” –July 20, 1977

“I haven’t been feeling well for the past two weeks, I think it’s the pimple medicine. I’m going to the pimple doctor again early in the morning.” –July 20, 1977

“We reminisced about the sixties when I sent him on that college lecture tour with Paul and Viva to impersonate me and then the places found out and made me redo the whole tour.” –July 21, 1977

“Elvis never knew there were more interesting people.” –Aug. 30, 1977

“They spoke a lot of French so we stared around a lot.” –Sept. 4, 1977

“Pierre said that they were putting silicone in cocks now so they stayed hard all the time. Yves said he hoped everyone would do it so he could design new pants.” –Sept. 4, 1977

“We learned more about Fred with every new champagne bottle.” –Sept. 6, 1977

“Fred was getting drunker and started dancing with them too. I got so embarrassed that I left.” –Sept. 6, 1977 (Poor Andy)

“If Italians laugh at you and lose respect, you can’t get work out of them-.” Sept. 16, 1977

“They’re calling me the Queen of Punk.” –Sept. 17, 1977

“…she’s just…trashy.” –Sept. 20, 1977 (of Sophia Loren)

“…and I didn’t know that golf clubs have hats on them with drawstrings.” –Sept. 21, 1977

“But tonight I innovated something, I put the black pants on over my bluejeans and it didn’t really look lumpy, it worked, so I walked out of the house in two pairs of pants.” –Sept. 25, 1977

“They don’t forget- people on drugs really do remember.” –Sept. 25, 1977

“Went to 12 West and I would dance, so Stevie danced with a pillow.” –Sept. 25, 1977

“I always drink.” –Sept. 25, 1977

“Upstairs there was “entertainment.” It was a drag queen.” –Sept. 25, 1977

“I spent the rest of the day calling people to be my date but nobody wanted to go.” Sept. 27, 1977

“…everybody in South America is all different colors-.” Sept. 27, 1977

“Rauschenberg peed on the side of the bus and two Texas Rangers appeared and arrested him and took him to jail! I mean if you’re walking along the street in New York, what if you really have to pee or shit? What do you do? Do you have to do it in you pants? Will they arrest you if you do it in the street? And if you can prove that you really had to go, will they let you go but will you have a criminal record? I guess you have to do it in you pants.” –Sept. 29, 1977

“As I looked around at how young the girls were, all I could think about was the Interview upstairs.” –Sept. 29, 1977

“I mean, you’d think they would have found a way to cure pimples. If a girl like Tina who can spend all the money in the world to get rid of pimples can’t get rid of them, then there’s no hope for me.” –Sept. 29, 1977

“All I could think of was the magazines with maybe nude photos in them.” -Sept. 29, 1977

“Elaine of Elaine’s was there, too, she told me she was on a high protein diet. But later I saw her stuffing herself with rolls.” –Oct. 1, 1977

“Went to see Dr. Poster about my red eye and he said it was just a broken blood vessel, to put hot compresses on it. But I forgot.” –Oct. 3, 1977

“Catherine told me not to call her a “rich bitch” because it was undignified.” –Oct. 3, 1977

“Bob Weiner was there, still researching his article on Steve, and I’m sure it’s going to be so bad because 1) it’s him writing it and 2) he didn’t pay any attention at dinner while all these great things were happening and with all these great people together.” –Oct. 3, 1977

“Woke up with a sore throat and I think it’s from kissing all those funny girls who come running over to me. I never used to do that, but they’re just there and you don’t’ want to be rude.” –Oct. 6, 1977

“I locked the place up myself. And when it’s my responsibility, I get so nervous I do things like pull out the plugs to the Xerox machine so they wont start a spontaneous combustion: I decided I would risk leaving the refrigerator on.” –Oct. 11, 1977

“When I got home there was a message from Barry Landau, somehow he’d gotten my number. So now the three worst people to have your unlisted number have mine- Bob Weiner, Steve Rubell, and Barry Landau.” –Oct. 11, 1977

“The movie has the longest nudity. Usually when they photograph a cock they make it fall in the shadows and the shadows always fall where the cock is. But in this movie the cock always fall right where you can see it.” –Oct. 11, 1977

“I asked Elton if I could kiss him, but he didn’t answer me so I didn’t.” –Oct. 11, 1977

“I had to avoid all the boys I’ve been accepting rides and dates from lately. I had to look nervous and run around so no one would follow me- you know, the “frantic” technique.” –Oct. 11, 1977

“He sees me as a hermaphrodite. He’s a terrible sculptor and it doesn’t matter if I pose for him all day or not, it’s just going to come out like an African totem pole anyway.” –Oct. 17, 1977

“I love to sit with Boris in his cubicle and see all the strange people who come in. And I love Boris’s fake hand.” –Oct. 17, 1977

“Woke up after a good long night’s sleep. I needed it to clear it up some pimples. When you don’t sleep you really have them.” –Oct. 18, 1977

“O.J. is so good-looking.” –Oct. 19, 1977

“ “Your Soup Can changed this country.” .” –Oct. 29, 1977 (Ruth Warrick said of Andy’s paintings. Ha! Take that all you soup can painting haters!)

“When the show finished, people were doing the “bravo” thing.” –Oct. 29, 1977

“People on drugs, you think they don’t notice things, but they notice everything.” –Oct. 30, 1977

“My diamond choker was pinching my neck- I hate jewelry.” –Oct. 31, 1977

“My boyfriend Peter came up and found me with my boyfriend Danny so I introduced them as my boyfriends and that got them interested in each other so they went off together.” –Oct. 31, 1977

“My blood pressure was up from 78 to 97. But I don’t know what that means. The nurse didn’t seem upset.” –Nov. 2, 1977

“Kareem was so big, I could walk through his legs.” –Nov. 4, 1977

“It was a bad day, “family” problems.” –Nov. 7, 1977

“The rain was so penetrating you were soaked in two feet’s walk. It felt so exciting!” –Nov. 7, 1977

“Then I went home and took the dogs out and they wouldn’t pee.” –Nov. 7, 1977

“Yeah, he’s probably just the opposite- he wears dresses.” –Nov. 9, 1977

“It was the most beautiful picture of a cookie that I’ve ever seen, and I went in and bought it, but when I opened the package, the cookies were really little. It was the first time I was ever deceived! They tasted good, but they weren’t big and beautiful like the one on the package.” –Nov. 9, 1977 (Famous Amos cookies)

“The kid had a high voice so I had high hopes he was a fairy until he said that.” –Nov. 9, 1977

“…all a “facial” means is that you spend more than five minutes to wash your face.” –Nov. 9, 1977

“Ira’s son was so handsome…just the right kind, like a kid you would want to go out on a date with.” –Nov. 10, 1977

“…it was a bunch of “strait” carpenters inviting a bunch of gay faggots.” –Nov. 13, 1977

“Like Chinese stuff- I can’t tell which is the good stuff, it all looks like the same junk.” –Nov. 13, 1977

“I’ve taken lots of the drugstore pills, and it’s scary.” –Jan. 1, 1978

“…he also said that Jack Haley wasn’t gay. You see? I was right, I didn’t think so.” –Jan. 3, 1977

“Punk is going to be so big.” –Jan. 3, 1977

“They were in the bathroom peeing together- you know how girls like to do that, have people to talk to wile they’re in the bathroom-.” –Jan. 4, 1977

“The doorbell rang and it was Victor in his underwear.” –Jan. 4, 1977

“I slipped M&Ms to her (Jade Jagger) and she took them like drugs.” –Jan. 8, 1977

“She can’t go to bed with him because she just doesn’t think he’s attractive.” –Jan. 10, 1977 (about Bianca and Mick Jagger)

“These girls are brought up strict, they think you shouldn’t put out.” –Jan. 12, 1977

“She said she didn’t know if she’d been penetrated or not while she was there, and hearing this got Peter Tufo hotter, and she spilled a drink on his pants, but that just made him hotter, too.” –Jan. 12, 1977

“…her scars would be punk jewelry.” –Jan. 12, 1977

“Victor was there with a really good-looking little 17-year-old high school kid from New Jersey, all-American Happy Days type of good looks, and I was thinking how can he come to New York and do things like meet me, and know Victor, and go to the Ramrod and come to Suzie’s for a screening of The Leopard, and then go back and sit all day in high school.” –Jan. 14, 1977

“When they saw how bad I looked everybody ran away from me and they didn’t come back until they were drunk. I was trying to make it better with conversation, so I just started telling them about how I was buying lots of dresses now, and they just backed away.” –Jan. 19, 1978

“We went outside to try to get a cab but we couldn’t. Then along came a white guy and a black girl in a car who offered us a ride anywhere we wanted to go, and we took it. They said Stevie wouldn’t let them in to Studio 54 because they didn’t look right, but they looked okay to me- I mean he looked like a fairy and she looked like a drag queen, it was the Studio 54 look.” –Jan. 21, 1978

“Caroline (Kennedy) asked me what I thought of totalitarianism and I couldn’t pronounce it so I tried to joke about it and she said, “No, I’m serious.”.” –Jan. 22, 1978

“And he had a present for me, too- a used jockstrap. It was great.” –Jan. 22, 1978

“Peter was very unhappy because all of his old girlfriends were in one room.” –Jan. 22, 1978

“Victor called and said that he’d done “something terrible” but he wouldn’t say what it was on the phone, that he would come over. But he still wouldn’t tell what he did. Later when I was talking to Bianca I got it out of her, so I called him up and said, “Gee, Victor, I had a dream last night that you were painting on top of my painting. Isn’t that crazy?”.” –Jan. 24, 1978



HOME