ANDY WARHOL

I broke something—and realized that I need to break something at least once a week to remind myself how fragile our life is.

In our time, when life expectancy has increased so much, we should stay having babies much longer. When people used to learn about sex at fifteen and die at thirty-five, they obviously had fewer problems than my contemporaries who learn about sex at eight and live until eighty. That's too long a time to stay intrigued by the same idea.

A true artist creates things people don’t need. But he feels that giving these things to people is his calling.

Once you repay a debt to someone, you will never accidentally run into them again. But before that, they are everywhere.

I hate Sundays—everything is closed except for bookstores and flower shops.

Nowadays, Italy produces a huge amount of food and clothing, but food and clothing are only two-thirds of what people need; the other third is housing, and no housing is being built there because everything was built long ago. This is what happened in Rome—the women ended up in kitchens, where they prepare all the food, and in factories, where they sew all the clothes, while the men do nothing because all the buildings are already constructed and aren't falling apart!

Just when you start thinking you're becoming famous, someone will inevitably come along and show you that you're just a rookie. Pope Paul VI—now that's publicity that lasts forever!

There should be courses leading to a degree in love. There ought to be classes on beauty, love, and sex. And love should be the main subject. I’ve always thought that children should be shown how to make love and have it explained to them once and for all that love is nothing. But no one will ever do that because love and sex are business. In any case, sex on screens and in books excites more than sex between sheets. Let children read about it and wait for it, and then, at the moment when they are ready to try it in real life, tell them they've already lived through the most interesting part, and it's behind them. Sometimes sex is nostalgia for the time when you wanted sex.

Good photos are taken at four in the morning, but I personally go to bed at eleven thirty.

If I were to go to a ‘lady of the night’, I’d probably pay her to tell me jokes.

Some people, even educated ones, say that violence can be beautiful. I can’t understand that because beauty is just a few fleeting moments, and for me, violence is never a part of those moments.

Nowadays, even if you’re a con artist, people will still take you seriously.

I’ve always asked without embarrassment, ‘What should I draw?’ because pop art comes from the outside, and what’s the difference if you hear an idea from someone or see it in a magazine?

Many people misunderstood us. They expected us to take everything seriously, but we didn’t—we aren’t intellectuals.

I can’t be called underground because I’ve always wanted to be visible.

Sometimes people let the same problem ruin their lives for years, while all they need to do is say, 'So what?' It’s one of my favorite phrases: 'So what?'

My mother didn’t love me. So what?

My husband doesn’t want me. So what?

I’ve succeeded, but I’m still lonely. So what?

I always have to laugh, though, when I think of how Hollywood called pop art a put-on! Hollywood? I mean, when you look at the kind of movies they were making then—those were supposed to be real?

If I had time for one vacation every ten years, I don’t think I’d want to go anywhere. I’d probably just go to my room, fluff up my pillow, turn on a couple of TVs, open a box of Ritz crackers, break the seal on a box of Russell Stover chocolates, grab a fresh issue of some magazine, like TV Guide, from the corner stand, and then pick up the phone and call everyone I know, asking them to look at their TV Guides and tell me what’s on, what’s been on, and what’s coming on TV.

My favorite combination of activities is talking while eating. I think it’s a sign of high class.

Personally, I prefer to keep my money in a mess. Crumpled bills. A paper bag is good for that.

I read in the newspaper what the symptoms of addiction are, and I have all of them.

If someone asks about my age, say I’m eighty. Always say, 'He’s eighty.'

What’s great about our country is that America started the tradition where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest ones. You watch TV and see a Coca-Cola, and you know that the president drinks Coca-Cola.

Business is the next step after art.

I’ve never met a person I couldn’t call a beauty. If someone isn’t considered beautiful, they can still succeed if they have a few jokes up their sleeve. And plenty of sleeves.

Women are especially desirable to kiss when they’re not wearing make-up. Marilyn’s lips didn’t make me want to kiss them, but they were very photogenic.

It’s a wonderful day. I’m all alone today, and I had the courage to make it to the office. I carry a pointed stick with me in case the elevator doors get stuck—that way, I can get out. And when I go to the office alone on weekends, I always tell someone I’m going there.

As soon as you stop wanting something, you immediately get it. I've found that this is an absolute axiom.

In the sixties, everyone was interested in everyone. In the seventies, everyone started abandoning everyone. The sixties were overflowing; the seventies—completely empty.

I went up to my room, and it turns out they’d left me a box of Lady Godiva chocolates, so I ate all the fillings. They also left a bottle of cognac, which I drank as well. And there was a basket of fruit, and I ate all the kiwis. I had so much sweet stuff that I probably passed out, although I woke up after just an hour.

Paul1¹Paul Morrisseyborn 1938 was an American avant-garde director from Warhol's circleblamed LSD for the crisis of humor in the sixties. He said the only person whose sense of humor wasn’t ruined by LSD was Timothy Leary.

Jim was supposed to be the star of my first erotic film—he agreed to bring a girl and screw her on camera, but when the time came, he never showed up. Although he was always so nice to me—but then again, I think he was nice to everyone.

I connect when I disconnect and go to sleep. That’s the great moment I’m always waiting for.

If I had died ten years ago, I would be a cult figure by now.