Interview

DID ANDY SAY ANYTHING THAT STUCK WITH YOU?

Walter Steding: "You're not the one who decides what's good."

Stephen Shore: Once, while we were shooting Chelsea Girls, we were sharing a taxi uptown at night and he said, "My films are so boring." He said that maybe if he showed two screens at once, they would be less boring. I then asked him why he didn't edit. He said, "I don't know how."

Gerard Malanga: While we were screening a canvas, Andy remarked, "how can we make it so it's as believable as mine?" When I'd voiced my objection, his response was, "gee, will I get into trouble?" A couple of years later his karma caught up when a photographer sued him for infringement of copyright on her flower photos, which he'd casually lifted from a seed catalog. Maybe that's when he started thinking: "Time to make my own pictures."

Chris Stein: "Oh, really?"

Billy Sullivan: "Gosh, Gee, Really, Oh, then what happened?"

Bob Colacello: "If I let myself have feelings, I'd commit suicide."

Ivan Karp: "Oh, Ivan. What should I collect?" and "Oh, Ivan. What should I paint next?"

Viva: "Viva, your mind is a gold mine."

Robert Dupont : That all press is good. When they don't write about you, it's bad.

Betsey Johnson: "Oh Betsey, how different you look from last time." Maybe it was the pink hair.

Dennis Hopper: All he really said was, "Oh, oh, oh." He said a lot of ohs. He didn't speak a lot, Andy.

Irving Blum: "Why do you think Dennis Hopper didn't buy that painting?"

Nick Rhodes: "If you don't go, you won't know." He could easily become more enthusiastic about going to a dull event than a grand affair and it usually paid off.

Benjamin Liu: When his mom passed, he told people she went shopping at Bloomingdale's.

John Giorno: On May 31, 1963, on a hot railroad platform in Old Lyme, Connecticut, waiting for the train to New York, Andy said to me, "Do you want to be a movie star?" The second great line was when he was about to begin shooting Sleep in my apartment on East 74th Street. I was naked and getting into bed. And Andy said, "Mr. Giorno, are you ready for your close-up?"

 Tom Cashin: He told me I was special.

John Waters: "You should make that exact movie again exactly the same way." [After seeing Pink Flamingos]

John Reinhold: One evening we were walking on upper Fifth Avenue and he suddenly turned to me and said, "You're here one minute and gone the next." That night John Lennon was shot a block from my apartment.

Anton Perich: "Oh, she is so gorgeous, take her picture!"

James Rosenquist: One time on Madison Avenue, he walked up to me and said, "Oh, you're the best artist." I thought it was a put-on. I said, "No, Andy, you're the best artist." Then he would say, "No, you're the best artist." Other artists would accept this, but with Andy and me it was a lot of fun.

Patti D'arbanville: "Pretty will get you pretty far." He was right.

Robert Heide: "Mickey Mouse is my favorite actor. Minnie Mouse is my favorite actress."

Kenny Scharf: He told me not to get married-to get a maid instead. I thought that was funny.

Susan Blond: When I was miserable about some boyfriend crisis, he would say, "work real hard, get real famous, and then you can have anyone you like."

Bryan Ferry: "You were fabulous."

Vincent Fremont: "If you are not having fun with the work you are doing, then don't do it."

TELL US SOMETHING MOST PEOPLE DON'T KNOW ABOUT ANDY

Ivy Nicholson: We were threatened by one of his boyfriends, Rod la Rod. Andy took my hand and led me to the backseat of his car. He was on L.S.D. We soul kissed for one hour and a half. 100 percent love.

Richard Dupont: He was a very generous person. I didn't have any money when I was a kid. I would be at Studio 54, and Andy would be leaving and he'd say, "Oh here," and would give me a $50 or a $100 bill. that was a lot back in 1977.

Chuck Close: Andy seemed to be part of that cliché, "What you see is what you get." But he was actually more than what people expected. I think he was earnest and serious.

John Wilcock: He was a kind, gentle soul who, in my experience never harmed anyone. I've heard the complaints that he "exploited" people, but, as someone wisely remarked, "Andy exploited -everybody to their own advantage." Another quote I really liked was, "Andy never does the same thing once."

John Giorno: Naked, Andy had a beautiful body-an alabaster-white, hairless, boy's body. soft skin. smooth, firm muscles, and a nice-size dick (not small) when hard. only the Andy head on top didn't think it was beautiful.

Irving Blum: He allowed me to exhibit the 32 soup cans in Los Angeles-his first show-because I told him that movie stars came into the gallery. That was a lie.

Taylor Mead: He had a big gray penis!

Ultra Violet: One time, alone on the fire escape at the Factory, I grabbed him and said, "let's make love." He got stiff and cold as he resisted me. He let out a loud moan as he wriggled out of my embrace. I thought he was afraid of heights, but I realized he was afraid of me.


Tom Cashin: In some ways, he was a devout Catholic. 

Kenny Scharf: Andy was so supportive of other artists and was very generous with his time and energy.

John Waters: Is there one detail of his life that hasn't been written about or exploited? I mean they even sell Valerie Solanas shopping bags at The Warhol Museum gift shop in Pittsburgh! Think of that: Marketing your assassin's image! Just amazing.

Francesco Clemente: He was lonely.

Robert Hawkins: Andy loved them more than they knew.

Stephen Shore: One day, when he came into the Factory, he asked me if I had happened to watch a certain movie that was on Channel 2 late the previous night. It was a terrible 1930s tearjerker starring Priscilla Lane. I said that, in fact, I had. He asked me to tell him the story, because he said he had started to watch it but had begun to cry and cried himself to sleep. He added that when he woke up, the TV was off. His mother had looked in, saw Andy sleeping with the TV on, and turned it off.

Ivan Karp: I never heard him demean another artist's work.

Viva: He basically had no opinions.

Shelly Fremont: Most people don't understand or believe how hard he worked. He painted every day-Saturday and Sunday, too. Everything was work for him. He was always working on getting ads for Interview or trying to get commissions for portraits. He was always worried about bringing home the bacon.

Dennis Hopper: I'm not sure that he was gay.

Chris Stein: That all the name-dropping in his writing was to reassure himself of his status, that he was as insecure as the rest of us.

 Nick Rhodes: He sometimes liked to carry a fistful of loose diamonds in his inside jacket pocket. He was excited by the fact that nobody knew they were there.

Tama Janowitz: Andy always liked to try different perfumes and to get the latest perfumes. he would mix different perfumes to create his own scent. He liked "beautiful" by Estée Lauder. I don't know what happened with all the bottles of perfume Andy must have had stored.

Susan Blond: He returned phone calls. Andy might buy a painting with a woman with her eyes crossed. He liked the mistakes in things.