I'll Be Your Mirror: The Selected Andy Warhol Interviews (22 page)

G: Your mother was born in Czechoslovakia. What language do you speak to each other?

W: I don’t talk to her much. I just make her take the pills.

G: But does she speak English? I read somewhere that she doesn’t.

W: She does.

G: And you speak English with her.

W: Yes.

G: Do you speak any Czech?

W: No.

G: Who takes care of the household?

W: There is a lady who comes.

G: She does the cooking and cleaning?

W: No. I do all that.

G: You? I’ve never heard or [
word missing
] this about you.

W: Nobody ever asked.

G: So you can cook?

W: No, I can’t.

G: What do you cook?

W: Brown rice. You just mix it with water, its very easy.

G: Do you have any favourite dishes?

W: Chicken soup.

G: But you can’t make that.

W: Sometimes I do.

G: I would assume that most of time you go to restaurants.

W: Sometimes. I eat before I go to a restaurant.

G: Are New York restaurants giving you too little to eat?

W: No. It is just my eating habit.

G: Are you too shy to eat in public?

W: You can’t talk when you eat. And restaurants are dirty.

G: Do you do the cleaning at home?

W: Some. I vacuum. My new art form is vacuum cleaning. Or washing dishes.

G: Is the end-result of your activity the “art” or is it the very process of doing it?

W: The doing of it. But I will eventually exhibit the results.

G: Incidentally, I saw an autographed picture of Greta Garbo at the Studio. Did she dedicate that to you? Do you know Garbo?

W: No, I just picked it up in an antique shop. I don’t know her personally, but I ran into her several times on the street.

G: Did you talk to her?

W: No, I just followed her in the rain. It’s much more fun that way. When it rains, she is out on the streets.

G: Did you try to talk to her?

W: No. It is more exciting this way.

G: Do you go to the movies frequently?

W: Yes.

G: Several times a week?

W: I watch two TV sets at a time.

G: Colour or black-and-white?

W: Both.

G: Do you also listen to both simultaneously?

W: Sometimes I do. I also talk on the telephone at the same time.

G: Do you go to the theatre?

W: No.

G: Do you read a lot?

W: No.

G: Do you read newspapers?

W: I watch the news on television.

G: When you do read, what papers, what topics?

W: I read the gossip columns . . . like
Woman’s Wear Daily
(the American fashion “Bible”).

G: Are you interested in women’s wear?

W: Yes.

G: In what way?

W: I am getting into fashions.

G: What will be your specific area: designing, manufacturing, distributing or what?

W: Reflecting.

G: An interviewer once asked what you liked best and then quoted you as having said “money.” Is that true?

W: I said “money for everybody.”

G: From what I can see, you are not too concerned about making money.

W: Just to pay the bills.

G: I am very impressed by your modesty. So many people who achieved fame or wealth tend to he a little stuffy. I wonder whether your modesty is based on a certain philosophy or outlook.

W: Yeah! I have some missing marbles!

G: What do you mean by that?

W: Some of my marbles are missing. That’s my philosophy.

G: Can you elaborate a little bit on this?

W: Everybody knows about missing marbles.

G: Yes, but what does it mean in your particular case?

W: Well, it means that something is missing . . . the marbles.

G: I see. What you mean to say is that whatever makes people act stuffy and overplay their roles is somehow missing from your psychological make-up.

W: Yeah.

G: Although you were born in this country, you do not strike me as a typical American. Your personality strikes me more as Continental.

W: There are a lot of people like that here. This is such a great country because it is all mixed up. When you are away from America and then come back to New York, you are happy to see it again, even though it is so dirty. But that is its character, somehow.

G: Do you travel extensively?

W: Not much. But it is always nice to come back to dirty New York.

G: People are very rough on each other here. Even taking a taxi can be an experience.

W: Oh yes. I used to be afraid of taxi drivers when they screamed. But I think they expect you to scream back. They scream and then you scream and then they scream again. I think this is just the way people talk, they don’t mean it. The trouble is that you read it in the papers that now when you talk back to some people, they really kill you! They just take a knife and stab you!

G: That brings me to an interesting question. Do people recognise you in the streets?

W: No. If I go to Bloomingdale’s department store or some thing, somebody just says “Oh, there is Andy Warhol,” and somebody else says “Oh, that’s nothing, we see him here all the time; he is nobody.”

You see people are only glamorous if you don’t see them. Like the movies used to make people years ago. There is something about people on screen that makes them so special; when you see them in person, they are so different and the whole illusion is gone.

G: What is your favourite pastime?

W: I like watching
Pantomime Quiz
. Do you ever watch that?

G: No. Is that a TV show?

W: Yeah.

G: Is it your favourite?

W: No, it’s not.
Love of Life
, a soap opera, is my favourite.

G: How long have you been watching it?

W: Oh, for the last 15 years.

G: Regularly, every day?

W: Uhu.

G: Are there any other things you like to do, like reading certain poets or listening to certain music?

W: No.

G: Once you said that never again would you paint another picture; is this still correct?

W: No, I do portraits.

G: Is this a commercial thing?

W: No, it actually helps us to pay for the movies.

G: Have you painted any famous people?

W: One of the Rothschilds.

G: Which branch of the family?

W: French.

G: Can you give me the first name?

W: Not at the moment.

G: Any other famous people?

W: Dennis Hopper. He made the movie
Easy Rider
.

G: How about photography?

W: I just use a Kodak Instamatic or a Polaroid camera.

G: Professionally or just as a hobby?

W:
Vogue
wants me to be their society editor.

G: And how did you react to this proposal?

W: I really want to do it!

G: But wouldn’t you have to attend far more parties than you would care for?

W: No. I would just talk to the people on the telephone.

G: Do you enjoy talking to society people?

W: Anybody can be [
word missing
]

G: In other words [
word missing
] be not strictly what is called “society” but also the “beautiful people”?

W: High society and low society.

G: You once said that blue jeans are just as fashionable when shabby as when they are new. You also referred to the way everybody in China wears the same kind of clothes. You said you liked it. So it seems you are more interested in fashion than people realise.

W: Old blue jeans here cost more than the new ones.

G: Are they genuine old ones or artificially made to look old?

W: They are actually worn ones.

G: This is an interesting phenomenon. What brought this attitude about? After all, a few years ago it was new clothes that were elegant and worn clothes were certainly not desirable.

W: Well, it’s just like when you are in a good restaurant where a lot of stars eat, and when a star goes to the bathroom, you always wonder about using the John after some big star. I think it is the same thing with used blue jeans.

G: Do you go to fancy restaurants?

W: No. I just go where anybody invites me.

G: You don’t go on your own?

W: Yeah.

G: Why is that?

W: I am afraid to go out.

G: Are you worried to walk about the streets?

W: Yeah.

G: What makes you uneasy? Are you afraid of the crowds, or of big places, or muggings, or what?

W: I think it’s all of these.

G: If I may change the subject to those charming and very often beautiful young ladies who appear in your films. They are often referred to as superstars. Did you invent that expression?

W: No.

G: But it certainly did come out of your films.

W: Maybe.

G: What do these women mean to you? How often do they influence your life, apart from the fact that they act in your films?

W: Well, they are not that beautiful!

G: Some of them are. And they have certain qualities most women don’t possess.

W: No, they just “turn on” for the camera. They are not that way when the camera is not on. They are just like a TV set that can be turned on and off . . . I don’t know . . . they don’t listen to anything I say, anyway! They don’t listen when we put on the camera.

G: So how do you direct the movie?

W: I don’t! They do.

G: Back to your private life: do you take part in any sports? Tennis, golf, swimming?

W: No. But I vacuum!

G: Vacuum clean?

W: Yes, and I wash dishes! That’s my sport!

G: But wouldn’t you pass it up if you could?

W: Oh no, I really love it! I would really like to vacuum the Vatican! Do you think you could help me to get a chance to vacuum the Vatican?

G: Well, actually, my influence at the Vatican is rather limited. . . .

W: Or perhaps that great place near Munich that used to be the royal castle of the Bavarian King! Do they have carpets there? Well, it’s probably not very dirty in Europe, anyway!

G: How often do you vacuum these days?

W: Well, I did it every day for a month at Finch College, but I don’t do it anymore.

G: But you wash dishes every day?

W: Yes, that I do.

G: You live on 90th Street. How large is your apartment?

W: About six rooms.

G: What is your furnishing like? Is it interesting?

W: No, it’s a dump!

G: Maybe what you call a dump, others wouldn’t.

W: No, all the plumbing broke down and all the hot water pipes had to be replaced.

G: You mean there is no hot water?

W: There is now, but there wasn’t for four months. The walls were broken open and they are still fixing them.

G: Is it a big building?

W: A small building, three storeys.

G: How can it be that Andy Warhol, a famous man, lives in such a building?

W: I am trying to move out.

G: Where to?

W: I wanted to buy a house on Long Island, but they didn’t want me in the neighbourhood. They returned the deposit I made.

G: Why didn’t they want you?

W: 1 don’t know.

G: How do you feel about politics? Do you have any strong convictions?

W: Just like everybody else.

G: Can we have some particulars? Or would you rather stay aloof. . ?

W: Aloof.

G: Are you trying to incorporate ideas of philosophy, of politics and outlook into your art?

W: I guess so.

G: Would you tell me what this philosophy and outlook is?

W: No.

G: But I must assume that as an artist–and here I mean filmmaker as well as a graphic artist–you are using your skill for the betterment of the world, for the benefit of mankind. Am I correct?

W: I am trying to.

G: Could you tell me then something about the inter-relationship between your art and your philosophy? How are your ideals translated into art?