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The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (From a to B and Back Again) [In Japanese Language]
A loosely formed autobiography by Andy Warhol, told with his trademark blend of irony and detachment
In The Philosophy of Andy Warhol—which, with the subtitle "(From A to B and Back Again)," is less a memoir than a collection of riffs and reflections—he talks about love, sex, food, beauty, fame, work, money, and success; about New York, America, and his childhood in McKeesport, Pennsylvania; about his good times and bad in New York, the explosion of his career in the sixties, and his life among celebrities.
In The Philosophy of Andy Warhol—which, with the subtitle "(From A to B and Back Again)," is less a memoir than a collection of riffs and reflections—he talks about love, sex, food, beauty, fame, work, money, and success; about New York, America, and his childhood in McKeesport, Pennsylvania; about his good times and bad in New York, the explosion of his career in the sixties, and his life among celebrities.
Tankobon Hardcover
First published January 1, 1975
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About the author
Andy Warhol
389 books608 followersAndy Warhol was an American visual artist, film director and producer. A leading figure in the pop art movement, Warhol is considered one of the most important American artists of the second half of the 20th century. His works explore the relationship between artistic expression, advertising, and celebrity culture that flourished by the 1960s, and span a variety of media, including painting, silkscreening, photography, film, and sculpture. Some of his best-known works include the silkscreen paintings Campbell's Soup Cans (1962) and Marilyn Diptych (1962), the experimental films Empire (1964) and Chelsea Girls (1966), and the multimedia events known as the Exploding Plastic Inevitable (1966–67).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 735 reviews
October 31, 2021
Andy prefers amateur dramatics to Oscar-winning performances: "I can only understand really amateur performers or really bad performers, because whatever they do never really comes off, so therefore it can’t be phoney. But I can never understand really good, professional performers. Every professional performer I’ve ever seen always does exactly the same thing at exactly the same moment in every show they do. They know when the audience is going to laugh and when it’s going to get really interested. What I like are things that are different every time. That’s why I like amateur performers and bad performers—you can never tell what they’ll do next."
Coco Cola equality "What’s great about this country is that America started the tradition where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest. You can be watching TV and see Coca-Cola, and you can know that the President drinks Coke, Liz Taylor drinks Coke, and just think, you can drink Coke, too. A Coke is a Coke and no amount of money can get you a better Coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking. All the Cokes are the same and all the Cokes are good. Liz Taylor knows it, the President knows it, the bum knows it, and you know it."
On the unimportance of art "I really believe In empty spaces, although, as an artist, I make a lot of junk. Empty space is never-wasted space. Wasted space is any space that has art in it.
An artist is somebody who produces things that people don’t need to have but that he—for some reason—thinks it would be a good idea to give them. Business Art is a much better thing to be making than Art Art, because Art Art doesn’t support the space it takes up, whereas Business Art does. (If Business Art doesn’t support its own space it goes out-of-business.)
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. I go even further in not following my own philosophy, because I can’t even empty my own spaces. It’s not that my philosophy is failing me, it’s that I am failing my own philosophy. I breach what I preach more than I practice it.
By business art, Andy means The Factory, where all items were produced for sale, it was a business, no-one was starving in a garrett. He had started off as a graphic artist which is more business art.
Lastly, Andy deliberately misunderstanding physics "People who tell you we’re running out of things are just making the prices go up higher. How can we be running out of anything when there’s always, if I’m not mistaken, the same amount of matter in the Universe, with the exception of what goes into the black holes?"
_________________
Notes on reading The first half of this book "is the philosophy of Andy Warhol, or something akin to it anyway. The second half is an almost crazy stream of consciousness outpouring from himself and his best boy B who is a phone addict and needs to share everything. Both of them are OCD clean freaks. There is a great deal of ripping up into bits and toilet-flushing in this half.
A couple of weeks ago I was in Florida, Longboat Key and there was an exhibition of Andy's Flowers at the Selby Botanic Gardens in Sarasota. Subsumed beneath the cool, the hype, and the business art, Andy was a wonderful draughtsman and a real artist, one who was really good at branding too. He wasn't cool really, and just as impressed with celebrities as the rest of us (he didn't mind being a bit of a freeloader off them though). For many years he didn't take drugs apart from pain killers from the Valerie Solanus stabbing, and the unsuccessful operations that followed. He was a committed Catholic and went to church every day and was a good son and uncle. Not really like his publicity, but he had only himself to blame - or thank - for that.
His ending was sad. He always said he would never go into hospital again to have his health problems addressed, mostly caused by the stabbings and adhesions that had developed inside from the multiple operations. He said he knew if he went in again, he would never come out alive. He was right.
Coco Cola equality "What’s great about this country is that America started the tradition where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest. You can be watching TV and see Coca-Cola, and you can know that the President drinks Coke, Liz Taylor drinks Coke, and just think, you can drink Coke, too. A Coke is a Coke and no amount of money can get you a better Coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking. All the Cokes are the same and all the Cokes are good. Liz Taylor knows it, the President knows it, the bum knows it, and you know it."
On the unimportance of art "I really believe In empty spaces, although, as an artist, I make a lot of junk. Empty space is never-wasted space. Wasted space is any space that has art in it.
An artist is somebody who produces things that people don’t need to have but that he—for some reason—thinks it would be a good idea to give them. Business Art is a much better thing to be making than Art Art, because Art Art doesn’t support the space it takes up, whereas Business Art does. (If Business Art doesn’t support its own space it goes out-of-business.)
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. I go even further in not following my own philosophy, because I can’t even empty my own spaces. It’s not that my philosophy is failing me, it’s that I am failing my own philosophy. I breach what I preach more than I practice it.
By business art, Andy means The Factory, where all items were produced for sale, it was a business, no-one was starving in a garrett. He had started off as a graphic artist which is more business art.
Lastly, Andy deliberately misunderstanding physics "People who tell you we’re running out of things are just making the prices go up higher. How can we be running out of anything when there’s always, if I’m not mistaken, the same amount of matter in the Universe, with the exception of what goes into the black holes?"
_________________
Notes on reading The first half of this book "is the philosophy of Andy Warhol, or something akin to it anyway. The second half is an almost crazy stream of consciousness outpouring from himself and his best boy B who is a phone addict and needs to share everything. Both of them are OCD clean freaks. There is a great deal of ripping up into bits and toilet-flushing in this half.
A couple of weeks ago I was in Florida, Longboat Key and there was an exhibition of Andy's Flowers at the Selby Botanic Gardens in Sarasota. Subsumed beneath the cool, the hype, and the business art, Andy was a wonderful draughtsman and a real artist, one who was really good at branding too. He wasn't cool really, and just as impressed with celebrities as the rest of us (he didn't mind being a bit of a freeloader off them though). For many years he didn't take drugs apart from pain killers from the Valerie Solanus stabbing, and the unsuccessful operations that followed. He was a committed Catholic and went to church every day and was a good son and uncle. Not really like his publicity, but he had only himself to blame - or thank - for that.
His ending was sad. He always said he would never go into hospital again to have his health problems addressed, mostly caused by the stabbings and adhesions that had developed inside from the multiple operations. He said he knew if he went in again, he would never come out alive. He was right.
October 8, 2014
Back when I was really serious about finding profound meaning in life, and thought for some reason that that meaning would somehow emanate from something outside myself, that the world itself should be steeped in it, I hated everything Warhol stood for (as I perceived it) - shallowness, flippancy, etc. - because of course I resented his apparent lack of interest in finding the type of deep meaning that interested me; but now that I've realized that any meaning that life might have resides only in our individual breasts, and that the world itself is rather empty, Warhol's shallowness seems profound to me.
January 14, 2008
i once wondered what the world would be like if, instead of a bible in every hotel room bedside table, there were this book. what kind of world would that be, if every bored, lonely person in a hotel room anywhere in the world disinterestedly picked up this book and thumbed through it before sleep?
don't let what you think you know about andy warhol keep you from reading this book. it is very funny, it is very self-conscious, and it is searingly DEAD ON in many, many places, especially as regards art, practice, technology, and laying out a general synopsis of how one mindset of how art is/should be got transposed into an entire ethos... (i think the chapters on love and space are my favorites).
a laugh-out-loud moment is when andy warhol learns that picasso painted something like 3000 paintings in his life. "that's nothing!" andy sneers. "i could do that in a month!" and so he sets out to undo picasso. he gets to the end of the month. not even close. "wow. that's really a lot harder than i thought."
this book is so good. just thinking about it makes me simultaneously giggle, feel sad, and think, "so true, so true."
don't let what you think you know about andy warhol keep you from reading this book. it is very funny, it is very self-conscious, and it is searingly DEAD ON in many, many places, especially as regards art, practice, technology, and laying out a general synopsis of how one mindset of how art is/should be got transposed into an entire ethos... (i think the chapters on love and space are my favorites).
a laugh-out-loud moment is when andy warhol learns that picasso painted something like 3000 paintings in his life. "that's nothing!" andy sneers. "i could do that in a month!" and so he sets out to undo picasso. he gets to the end of the month. not even close. "wow. that's really a lot harder than i thought."
this book is so good. just thinking about it makes me simultaneously giggle, feel sad, and think, "so true, so true."
September 7, 2017
Self indulgent and tedious nonsense.
November 22, 2016
Droll. Very droll.
July 13, 2008
I read a year later that Andy Warhol didn't even write this. Two staff members of his Interview magazine did it based on things Andy said and the way he was. But I loved and related to a lot of the ideas in the book or at least thought they were brilliant in their eccentricity. I really like the part about there are two kinds of people- people who are totally into having sex and are just so into it and the people who can't ever get into because they are so caught up in the idea of "I am having sex". I think this is a pretty fair and correct assessment. And I'm not sure if it was in here or in Holy Terror (written by one of the ghost-authors of this) where he talks about using a new perfume every 6 months and then discarding it so that scent reminds him of all of the things that happened in that period and whenever he smells it, the memories from that time will come back. I love it.
November 7, 2019
"That forty-pound shopping bag full of rice that I bought in a panic is still sitting next to my bed," I said.
"So is mine, except it's eighty pounds and it's driving me crazy because the shopping bag doesn't match the curtains."
--
"Some critic called me the Nothingness Himself and that didn't help my sense of existence any. Then I realized that existence itself is nothing and I felt better. But I'm still obsessed with the idea of looking into the mirror and seeing no one, nothing."
"I'm obsessed," B said, "with the idea of looking into the mirror and saying 'I don't believe it. How can I get the publicity I get? How can I be one of the most famous persons in the world? Just look at me!'"
--
"Remember how embarrassed you were in the hospital when the nuns saw you without your wings? And you started to collect things again. The nuns got you interested in collecting stamps, like you did when you were a kid or something. They got you interested in coins again too." "But you haven't told me what happened." I wanted B to spell it out for me. If someone else talks about it, I listen, I hear the words, and I think, maybe it's all true. "You were just lying there and Billy Name was standing over you and crying. And you kept saying to him not to make you laugh because it really hurt."
"And . . .? And . . .?"
"You were in a room in the intensive care unit, getting all these cards and presents from everybody, including me, but you wouldn't let me come and visit you because you thought I'd steal your pills. And you said you thought that coming so close to death was really like coming so close to life, because life is nothing."
"Yes, yes, but how did it happen?"
"The founder of the Society for Cutting Up Men wanted you to produce a script she'd written and you weren't interested and she just came up to your work studio one afternoon. There were a lot of people there and you were talking on the telephone. You didn't know her too well and she just walked in off the elevator and started shooting. Your mother was really upset. You thought she'd die of it. Your brother was really fabulous, the one who's a priest. He came up to your room and showed you how to do needlepoint. I'd taught him how in the lobby!"
So that's how I was shot?
--
My apartment was on top of Shirley's Pin-Up Bar, where Mabel Mercer would come to slum and sing "You're So Adorable," and the TV also put that in a whole new perspective. The building was a five-floor walk-up and originally I'd had the apartment on the fifth floor. Then, when the second floor became available, I took that, too, so now I had two floors, but not two consecutive ones. After I got my TV, though, I stayed more and more in the TV floor.
In the years after I'd decided to be a loner, I got more and more popular and found myself with more and more friends. Professionally I was doing well. I had my own studio and a few people working for me, and an arrangement evolved where they actually lived at my work studio. In those days, everything was loose, flexible. The people in the studio were there night and day. Friends of friends. Maria Callas was always on the phonograph and there were lots of mirrors and a lot of tinfoil.
I had by then made my Pop Art statement, so I had a lot of work to do, a lot of canvases to stretch. I worked from ten a.m. to ten p.m., usually, going home to sleep and coming back in the morning, but when I would get there in the morning the same people I'd left there the night before were still there, still going strong, still with Maria and the mirrors. This is when I started realizing how insane people can be. For example, one girl moved into the elevator and wouldn't leave for a week until they refused to bring her any more Cokes. I didn't know what to make of the whole scene. Since I was paying the rent for the studio, I guessed that this somehow was actually my scene, but don't ask me what it was all about, because I never could figure it out.
--
Mom always said not to worry about love, but just to be sure to get married. But I always knew that I would never get married, because I don't want any children, I don't want them to have the same problems that I have. I don't think anybody deserves it. I think a lot about the people who are supposed to not have any problems, who get married and live and die and it's all been wonderful. I don't know anybody like that. They always have some problem, even if it's only that the toilet doesn't flush. My ideal wife would have a lot of bacon, bring it all home, and have a TV station besides.
"So is mine, except it's eighty pounds and it's driving me crazy because the shopping bag doesn't match the curtains."
--
"Some critic called me the Nothingness Himself and that didn't help my sense of existence any. Then I realized that existence itself is nothing and I felt better. But I'm still obsessed with the idea of looking into the mirror and seeing no one, nothing."
"I'm obsessed," B said, "with the idea of looking into the mirror and saying 'I don't believe it. How can I get the publicity I get? How can I be one of the most famous persons in the world? Just look at me!'"
--
"Remember how embarrassed you were in the hospital when the nuns saw you without your wings? And you started to collect things again. The nuns got you interested in collecting stamps, like you did when you were a kid or something. They got you interested in coins again too." "But you haven't told me what happened." I wanted B to spell it out for me. If someone else talks about it, I listen, I hear the words, and I think, maybe it's all true. "You were just lying there and Billy Name was standing over you and crying. And you kept saying to him not to make you laugh because it really hurt."
"And . . .? And . . .?"
"You were in a room in the intensive care unit, getting all these cards and presents from everybody, including me, but you wouldn't let me come and visit you because you thought I'd steal your pills. And you said you thought that coming so close to death was really like coming so close to life, because life is nothing."
"Yes, yes, but how did it happen?"
"The founder of the Society for Cutting Up Men wanted you to produce a script she'd written and you weren't interested and she just came up to your work studio one afternoon. There were a lot of people there and you were talking on the telephone. You didn't know her too well and she just walked in off the elevator and started shooting. Your mother was really upset. You thought she'd die of it. Your brother was really fabulous, the one who's a priest. He came up to your room and showed you how to do needlepoint. I'd taught him how in the lobby!"
So that's how I was shot?
--
My apartment was on top of Shirley's Pin-Up Bar, where Mabel Mercer would come to slum and sing "You're So Adorable," and the TV also put that in a whole new perspective. The building was a five-floor walk-up and originally I'd had the apartment on the fifth floor. Then, when the second floor became available, I took that, too, so now I had two floors, but not two consecutive ones. After I got my TV, though, I stayed more and more in the TV floor.
In the years after I'd decided to be a loner, I got more and more popular and found myself with more and more friends. Professionally I was doing well. I had my own studio and a few people working for me, and an arrangement evolved where they actually lived at my work studio. In those days, everything was loose, flexible. The people in the studio were there night and day. Friends of friends. Maria Callas was always on the phonograph and there were lots of mirrors and a lot of tinfoil.
I had by then made my Pop Art statement, so I had a lot of work to do, a lot of canvases to stretch. I worked from ten a.m. to ten p.m., usually, going home to sleep and coming back in the morning, but when I would get there in the morning the same people I'd left there the night before were still there, still going strong, still with Maria and the mirrors. This is when I started realizing how insane people can be. For example, one girl moved into the elevator and wouldn't leave for a week until they refused to bring her any more Cokes. I didn't know what to make of the whole scene. Since I was paying the rent for the studio, I guessed that this somehow was actually my scene, but don't ask me what it was all about, because I never could figure it out.
--
Mom always said not to worry about love, but just to be sure to get married. But I always knew that I would never get married, because I don't want any children, I don't want them to have the same problems that I have. I don't think anybody deserves it. I think a lot about the people who are supposed to not have any problems, who get married and live and die and it's all been wonderful. I don't know anybody like that. They always have some problem, even if it's only that the toilet doesn't flush. My ideal wife would have a lot of bacon, bring it all home, and have a TV station besides.
January 22, 2025
If the word and concept of "cool" were a person it would be Andy Warhol. He is the GOAT actually. His writing is so clever, effortless, and humorous, to the point where you feel like never putting down this book. It's like he's sitting there talking to you, and who would ever want that to end? Filled with ideas and perspectives on many things from love, sex, culture, art, and buying underwear; this is a time capsule of life and culture in the 60s and 70s through the eyes of one of the coolest people to live, Andy Warhol.
November 14, 2012
Andy Warhol makes me laugh. I'm not sure that was his intention, but I always reach for his books when I need a quick pick-me-up. In fact, I turned to this book straight after I'd read 'We Need To Talk About Kevin'. And sure enough, after a few pages I fell asleep and had the most blissful night's rest. (The last thing I read was talk about semen as a rejuvenating facial cream!)
*
I’ve always had an on/off relationship with ‘The Philosophy of Andy Warhol’; non-committal. I’d pick it up every now and again for a laugh, but never read it through. I always dismissed it as a bit light on, and not worth too much of my attention.
But, for the sake of a Goodreads’ review, I decided to read it through, and I’m pleasantly surprised. ‘Philosophy’, of course, is used in its most frivolous context, to mean simply an approach to, or overview of, life. Though Warhol’s thoughts are humorous (“Buying is much more American than thinking and I’m as American as they come”, “I guess that’s what marriage boils down to – your wife buys your underwear for you”), he doesn’t ponder any of the big questions in any great depth.
Rather, it’s one man’s observations on life. And as an icon of the 20th century, it doesn’t really matter what Warhol says; fame has given him a mouthpiece, and people listen.
That includes me, which is very unusual, since I have no time for the celebrity intrigue of the modern age, and if Warhol lived today, I would probably ignore him, too.
And, yet, here I am, such a keen devotee of Warhol that I’ve read ‘The Philosophy of Andy Warhol’ right the way through.
He has advice for people who want to lose weight: “ … try the Andy Warhol New York City Diet: when I order in a restaurant, I order everything that I don’t want, so I have a lot to play around with while everyone else eats. Then, …, I insist that the waiter wrap the entire plate up like a to-go order, and after we leave the restaurant I find a little corner outside in the street to leave the plate in, because there are so many people in New York who live in the streets, with everything they own in shopping bags.”
And there, you’ve not put on an ounce of weight, and you’ve done a good deed, to boot.
I love the commentary on the 1960s: “During the 60s a lot of people I knew seemed to think that underarm smell was attractive. They never seemed to be wearing anything washable. Everything always had to be dry-cleaned – the satins, the sewn-on mirrors, the velvets – the problem was that it was never dry-cleaned. And then it got worse when everybody was wearing suedes and leathers …”
I own a suede skirt!
If there’s one thing you can say about Warhol, it’s he doesn’t think too deeply about things: “I try to think what time is and all I can think is … ‘Time is time was.” (What would Heidegger think?)
But, then, some things you don’t need to think too deeply about: “I thought that young people had more problems than old people … Then I looked around and saw that everybody who looked young had young problems and that everybody who looked old had old problems.”
And that may be why I like him so much. He is the antithesis of me. I think too deeply about everything and would have tied myself in knots trying to write a book titled ‘The Philosophy of Rachel Eldred’.
Warhol is quoted as having said: “Art is whatever you can get away with.”
Let’s face it, he got away with a helluva lot!
For fans only.
*
I’ve always had an on/off relationship with ‘The Philosophy of Andy Warhol’; non-committal. I’d pick it up every now and again for a laugh, but never read it through. I always dismissed it as a bit light on, and not worth too much of my attention.
But, for the sake of a Goodreads’ review, I decided to read it through, and I’m pleasantly surprised. ‘Philosophy’, of course, is used in its most frivolous context, to mean simply an approach to, or overview of, life. Though Warhol’s thoughts are humorous (“Buying is much more American than thinking and I’m as American as they come”, “I guess that’s what marriage boils down to – your wife buys your underwear for you”), he doesn’t ponder any of the big questions in any great depth.
Rather, it’s one man’s observations on life. And as an icon of the 20th century, it doesn’t really matter what Warhol says; fame has given him a mouthpiece, and people listen.
That includes me, which is very unusual, since I have no time for the celebrity intrigue of the modern age, and if Warhol lived today, I would probably ignore him, too.
And, yet, here I am, such a keen devotee of Warhol that I’ve read ‘The Philosophy of Andy Warhol’ right the way through.
He has advice for people who want to lose weight: “ … try the Andy Warhol New York City Diet: when I order in a restaurant, I order everything that I don’t want, so I have a lot to play around with while everyone else eats. Then, …, I insist that the waiter wrap the entire plate up like a to-go order, and after we leave the restaurant I find a little corner outside in the street to leave the plate in, because there are so many people in New York who live in the streets, with everything they own in shopping bags.”
And there, you’ve not put on an ounce of weight, and you’ve done a good deed, to boot.
I love the commentary on the 1960s: “During the 60s a lot of people I knew seemed to think that underarm smell was attractive. They never seemed to be wearing anything washable. Everything always had to be dry-cleaned – the satins, the sewn-on mirrors, the velvets – the problem was that it was never dry-cleaned. And then it got worse when everybody was wearing suedes and leathers …”
I own a suede skirt!
If there’s one thing you can say about Warhol, it’s he doesn’t think too deeply about things: “I try to think what time is and all I can think is … ‘Time is time was.” (What would Heidegger think?)
But, then, some things you don’t need to think too deeply about: “I thought that young people had more problems than old people … Then I looked around and saw that everybody who looked young had young problems and that everybody who looked old had old problems.”
And that may be why I like him so much. He is the antithesis of me. I think too deeply about everything and would have tied myself in knots trying to write a book titled ‘The Philosophy of Rachel Eldred’.
Warhol is quoted as having said: “Art is whatever you can get away with.”
Let’s face it, he got away with a helluva lot!
For fans only.
January 9, 2022
Not an out and out memoir as such, but rather a collection of inner monologues and reflections on a variety of topics, as well as sections where he spills the beans - or should that be Campbell's Soup - on moments from his own life. You certainly don't go into it expecting any sort of emotional attachment; but hey, this is Warhol. The New York pop art scene has always interested me so there wasn't going to be much not to like.
December 29, 2012
A quick, witty read that offers a glance into Warhol's head and world, as he would like us to see it. Really enjoyed it.
February 23, 2014
The Philosophy of Andy Warhol is essential reading for Warhol fans because it's filled with Warhol's views on life, money, art, film, fashion and most importantly, himself. Portions of the book are about as close as we're going to get to a full-blown autobiography, Warhol Diaries notwithstanding.
He goes back in time to when he was a kid in school and picked on for his bad skin and awkward looks, which explains his cool detachment in general as a defense mechanism. Also poignant are his recollections of being a successful commercial artist.
For all the talk about Warhol being an enigma it's a genuine surprise to read Warhol's confession of being a very shy, withdrawn person. His accounts of The Factory Years shows him being somewhat smothered by scores of nutty kids who spent more time there than he did. While he punched in from 10 am to 10 pm every day many "workers" moved in and wouldn't leave, according to him. I was also amused to read that rock & roll wasn't played there but Maria Callas records. Heh!
But if the book does have anything shocking up its sleeve it's Warhol's candor in discussing his being shot, recalled several times during the book. "The worst, most cruel review of me that I ever read was the Time Magazine report of me getting shot". "Right when I was being shot and ever since, I knew that I was watching television".
Unfortunately, two-thirds into the book Warhol runs out of philosophical gems and simply transcribes several long-winded and tedious conversations that would tire out a speed freak, so he loses a star or two. Highly recommended for Warhol fans.
He goes back in time to when he was a kid in school and picked on for his bad skin and awkward looks, which explains his cool detachment in general as a defense mechanism. Also poignant are his recollections of being a successful commercial artist.
For all the talk about Warhol being an enigma it's a genuine surprise to read Warhol's confession of being a very shy, withdrawn person. His accounts of The Factory Years shows him being somewhat smothered by scores of nutty kids who spent more time there than he did. While he punched in from 10 am to 10 pm every day many "workers" moved in and wouldn't leave, according to him. I was also amused to read that rock & roll wasn't played there but Maria Callas records. Heh!
But if the book does have anything shocking up its sleeve it's Warhol's candor in discussing his being shot, recalled several times during the book. "The worst, most cruel review of me that I ever read was the Time Magazine report of me getting shot". "Right when I was being shot and ever since, I knew that I was watching television".
Unfortunately, two-thirds into the book Warhol runs out of philosophical gems and simply transcribes several long-winded and tedious conversations that would tire out a speed freak, so he loses a star or two. Highly recommended for Warhol fans.
July 28, 2025
His art became a movement …
His infamy reigns on …
His genius inspirational …
The Philosophy Of Andy Warhol, is a peripheral autobiography examining the famed and misunderstood pop artist.
Entering his illusional world is like waking up in a house of mirrors. His colorful life was exclusive, seductive with eccentricities that drew famous onlookers.
Close your eyes and visualize …
Studio 54 captured in a 3-D painting and framed. Hanging askew, off center on the baron white wall in the home of a starlet, this is how I picture Andy.
I would recommend this book to anyone who is a fan and those curious about the man behind the persona.
A provocative weekend read:)
His infamy reigns on …
His genius inspirational …
The Philosophy Of Andy Warhol, is a peripheral autobiography examining the famed and misunderstood pop artist.
Entering his illusional world is like waking up in a house of mirrors. His colorful life was exclusive, seductive with eccentricities that drew famous onlookers.
Close your eyes and visualize …
Studio 54 captured in a 3-D painting and framed. Hanging askew, off center on the baron white wall in the home of a starlet, this is how I picture Andy.
I would recommend this book to anyone who is a fan and those curious about the man behind the persona.
A provocative weekend read:)
August 17, 2010
This book scared the hell out of me and I'm going to tell you why.
Andy Warhol predicted a hell of a lot that's happened in today's culture in this book, and even highlights some of the things gone terribly wrong with his own time. The final chapter hints at truths we would not see again until the days of Chuck Palahniuk - and some of the dialogue in this book is almost word for word the kind of stuff Chuck would write for his characters to say.
This is Andy Warhol's philosophy - but it is also partly his biography - detailing his mindset from A, the nickname he gives himself, to B, the person designated as "anyone who will listen". This is the work of a very disconnected from normal social contact - since he got swept up into the world of celebrities he probably didn't have many people he could trust - and people who barely knew him allegedly spat on him simply because he was Andy Warhol. Some even tried to kill him, twice.
If you want to get an idea of what the hell Lady Gaga means, read this book. It will explain Lady Gaga perfectly - because she isn't the first glamour conscious person who ever strutted her stuff, as this book shows. Even her fashion is a bit Warholian, if a bit more focused on the rich celebrity culture than being Andy, a son of poor immigrants who rose from obscurity to somebody who changed the face of art.
Read it from beginning to end, it's not just a book of quotes, it's a morally ambiguous guide to the American Nightmare. The book ends with these words, which I will paraphrase:
B: Because diamonds are forever...
A: Forever what?
Jarring and creepy as hell. You will probably like it if you are used to stuffy art theory books, because this is nothing like a stuffy art theory book. Five Stars.
Andy Warhol predicted a hell of a lot that's happened in today's culture in this book, and even highlights some of the things gone terribly wrong with his own time. The final chapter hints at truths we would not see again until the days of Chuck Palahniuk - and some of the dialogue in this book is almost word for word the kind of stuff Chuck would write for his characters to say.
This is Andy Warhol's philosophy - but it is also partly his biography - detailing his mindset from A, the nickname he gives himself, to B, the person designated as "anyone who will listen". This is the work of a very disconnected from normal social contact - since he got swept up into the world of celebrities he probably didn't have many people he could trust - and people who barely knew him allegedly spat on him simply because he was Andy Warhol. Some even tried to kill him, twice.
If you want to get an idea of what the hell Lady Gaga means, read this book. It will explain Lady Gaga perfectly - because she isn't the first glamour conscious person who ever strutted her stuff, as this book shows. Even her fashion is a bit Warholian, if a bit more focused on the rich celebrity culture than being Andy, a son of poor immigrants who rose from obscurity to somebody who changed the face of art.
Read it from beginning to end, it's not just a book of quotes, it's a morally ambiguous guide to the American Nightmare. The book ends with these words, which I will paraphrase:
B: Because diamonds are forever...
A: Forever what?
Jarring and creepy as hell. You will probably like it if you are used to stuffy art theory books, because this is nothing like a stuffy art theory book. Five Stars.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 2, 2013
I was an early subscriber to Interview Magazine and as such, I was able to place an advance order for a copy of this book. When it arrived, I opened it and found that Andy Warhol had personally inscribed it to me, and had also done a quick sketch of a Campbell's soup can on the inside cover. Over the years, my oldest daughter has taken this book from my bookshelves many times, and I have always managed to steal it back. Included within its pages, not only will you find Andy's famous description of fifteen minutes of fame, but also how to fold money like a rich person, and why everyone should have a closet/storage unit/warehouse in New Jersey. If I had to make a list of the books that I live my life by, this would definitely be in the top ten.
March 13, 2012
This book went from midly interesting to boring at times. The last 2 chapters are a yawn. I don't know whether to believe any of it, especially the constant rant of wanting to be alone most of the time. I do wish he was alive to live in the 21st century, he would have loved all the digital art that is being made today. And it would have been interesting to see what he would have produced.
February 14, 2017
Andy Warhol, a well known Pop artist, advanced art in the market culture. He is the one who did the label for Campbell’s Soup cans for which he used hand-painted canvases. And, he is the one who developed the silkscreen technique to reproduce a picture multiple times by adding slightly different features in each reproduction (In the 1962 series of paintings with Marilyn Monroe, he introduced the ‘assembly line art’). Through the multiplication technique, Warhol presented the concept of ‘celebrity status’ as a product required by a large mass of consumers. His book,"The Philosophy", tells us a little bit more about the man who stretched art values in the quotidian life. I deeply enjoyed reading the first 4 chapters about love and beauty, and I had lots of fun reading the entire book.
“However, I became what you might call fascinated by certain people. One person in the 60s fascinated me more than anybody I had ever known. And the fascination I experienced was probably very close to a certain kind of love.”
“ She had a poignantly vacant, vulnerable quality that made her a reflection of everybody's private fantasies. Taxi could be anything you wanted her to be—a little girl, a woman, intelligent, dumb, rich, poor—anything. She was a wonderful, beautiful blank. The mystique to end all mystiques.”
“Sex is more exciting on the screen and between the pages than between the sheets anyway. Let the kids read about it and look forward to it, and then right before they're going to get the reality, break the news to them that they've already had the most exciting part, that it's behind them already.”
“The symptom of love is when some of the chemicals inside you go bad. So there must be something in love because your chemicals do tell you something.
“When you're interested in somebody, and you think they might be interested in you, you should point out all your beauty problems and defects right away, rather than take a chance they won't notice them. Maybe, say, you have a permanent beauty problem you can't change, such as too-short legs. Just say it. "My legs, as you've probably noticed, are much too short in proportion to the rest of my body."
“Jewelry doesn't make a person more beautiful, but it makes a person feel more beautiful. “
“There are three things that always look very beautiful to me: my same good pair of old shoes that don't hurt, my own bedroom, and U.S. Customs on the way back home”
“However, I became what you might call fascinated by certain people. One person in the 60s fascinated me more than anybody I had ever known. And the fascination I experienced was probably very close to a certain kind of love.”
“ She had a poignantly vacant, vulnerable quality that made her a reflection of everybody's private fantasies. Taxi could be anything you wanted her to be—a little girl, a woman, intelligent, dumb, rich, poor—anything. She was a wonderful, beautiful blank. The mystique to end all mystiques.”
“Sex is more exciting on the screen and between the pages than between the sheets anyway. Let the kids read about it and look forward to it, and then right before they're going to get the reality, break the news to them that they've already had the most exciting part, that it's behind them already.”
“The symptom of love is when some of the chemicals inside you go bad. So there must be something in love because your chemicals do tell you something.
“When you're interested in somebody, and you think they might be interested in you, you should point out all your beauty problems and defects right away, rather than take a chance they won't notice them. Maybe, say, you have a permanent beauty problem you can't change, such as too-short legs. Just say it. "My legs, as you've probably noticed, are much too short in proportion to the rest of my body."
“Jewelry doesn't make a person more beautiful, but it makes a person feel more beautiful. “
“There are three things that always look very beautiful to me: my same good pair of old shoes that don't hurt, my own bedroom, and U.S. Customs on the way back home”
September 21, 2013
1. I decided to read this book because I am interested in Andy Warhol and his influence upon the current world and the commercialist mindset. I recently watched a documentary on him and he seemed like a very interesting and possibly neurotic kind of person, and I really enjoy delving into the minds and ideas of people who live in an altered reality.
2. This book completes the "diary, biography or autobiography" category in wider reading. Although it is not strictly any of these things, it contains biographical information and reports about things that have happened in his life. I enjoy reading this category because I love to see the world through the eyes of another, in particular people who are regarded as highly intelligent and innovative.
3. An idea I found particularly interesting in this book was Warhol's idea of consumerism. He indulged in spending and buying things he did not particularly need, only to throw them away at the months end. I found this interesting because it directly conflicts with my beliefs that consumerism will be the downfall of us all and is ruining the economy and greatly widening the gap between rich and poor. Warhol believes that because the rich and poor are both buying the same products, such as Coca Cola, it doesn't really make a difference. Everyone is drinking the same coca cola, and no coca cola is better than any others, therefore everyone is coming closer together through consumerism. I found this very interesting because it puts a new spin on a topic I am interested in.
4. A quote I found interesting in this book was "Sometimes people let the same problem make them miserable for years when they could just say, 'So what.'". This shows Warhol's idea of getting on with life and not letting small things bother you. I think that this is important to remember because if you let things that happened in the past get you down, you're going to forget to live your real life and have fun with what you're doing.
5. Something that I learned from this book is that consumerism is not always a bad thing, and can sometimes help the world become more equal. I think this is important because otherwise you could find yourself becoming more and more obsessive over stupid things, and it's more important just to get out there and live your life.
2. This book completes the "diary, biography or autobiography" category in wider reading. Although it is not strictly any of these things, it contains biographical information and reports about things that have happened in his life. I enjoy reading this category because I love to see the world through the eyes of another, in particular people who are regarded as highly intelligent and innovative.
3. An idea I found particularly interesting in this book was Warhol's idea of consumerism. He indulged in spending and buying things he did not particularly need, only to throw them away at the months end. I found this interesting because it directly conflicts with my beliefs that consumerism will be the downfall of us all and is ruining the economy and greatly widening the gap between rich and poor. Warhol believes that because the rich and poor are both buying the same products, such as Coca Cola, it doesn't really make a difference. Everyone is drinking the same coca cola, and no coca cola is better than any others, therefore everyone is coming closer together through consumerism. I found this very interesting because it puts a new spin on a topic I am interested in.
4. A quote I found interesting in this book was "Sometimes people let the same problem make them miserable for years when they could just say, 'So what.'". This shows Warhol's idea of getting on with life and not letting small things bother you. I think that this is important to remember because if you let things that happened in the past get you down, you're going to forget to live your real life and have fun with what you're doing.
5. Something that I learned from this book is that consumerism is not always a bad thing, and can sometimes help the world become more equal. I think this is important because otherwise you could find yourself becoming more and more obsessive over stupid things, and it's more important just to get out there and live your life.
March 9, 2018
Two phone conversations, one trip to Italy, one to Macy's department store for some underwear, and a few short quips and aphorisms in which we are served a helping of the author's thoughts on love, money, work, fame and, somehow, underwear. That's mostly it. The persona that emerges from these pages is a very thick shell housing an introverted personality whose peculiar habits are borne out of the way in which his artistic sensibility reacts to the outside world. Fascinating in retrospect, but makes for a very dull read.
March 31, 2009
When I was going through my arty phase, I loved this book! Now, that some time has passed I can't stand it. Warhol's ideas about money and what's American are still entertaining and apart of me, but the book has a lot of boring (and lengthy) passages about NOTHING. There were parts that I would not have been reading (for example, the detailed cleaning routine of one of Andy's friends) if they weren't by Warhol.
January 8, 2016
To be honest I thought I would hate this, dont know why, just did. But omg I felt like I just read someones entire tumblr start to finish and I bloody loved it!!!
December 11, 2022
picked this up randomly in the art section and didn’t think much of it and now it’s completely altered my personality for the foreseeable. I’m not even too interested in pop-art either. this was so enjoyable, I love all of Warhol’s funny ideas about the nature of human connection.
just finished this in the middle of a break in my uni library and it just reminds me of how fun reading that isn’t for my degree actually is.
just finished this in the middle of a break in my uni library and it just reminds me of how fun reading that isn’t for my degree actually is.
August 26, 2015
Andy Warhol byl celý život trochu malý kluk. A o tom tahle knížka je, přesně tak je napsaná. Prostince, ale zároveň způsobem, který vás navádí, abyste citovali každou druhou větu. Na všech stránkách vyslovuje absolutní pravdy, konstatuje, tvrdí, proklamuje a filosofuje. O všem, co vás napadne. O prvních láskách, o životě, o žárlivosti, sexu a nostalgii. O iluzorních zrcadlech. O čisté kráse, o fanoušcích a o Elizabeth Taylorové. O filmech a o času, o smrti, o nakupování. O umění a o veteši, o městech a venkovu. O kadeřnících, o krájeném salámu a o studených psích čumácích. O uklízení a o tom, co dělá, když mu dojde filosofie.
Boží čtení. Pro sběratele citátů naprostý must-read.
Boží čtení. Pro sběratele citátů naprostý must-read.
July 30, 2020
Warhol's persona here is at times enjoyable, at times pithy, at times profound, at times absurd, at times concerned with triviality (underwear brands), etc. Warhol's superficiality and the moments when he simply records the "buzz" he surrounded himself with (a B talking on the phone about how she cleans her house for pm an entire chapter, for example) can get a little depressing/spiritually draining. When you read a book you expect certain things; don't expect that here with Warhol. He subverts as usual.
January 28, 2022
The Philosophy of Andy Warhol, then, presents the critical reader with a portrait of the artist as a shallow, egotistical, superficial, self-contradictory man.
November 5, 2008
Silly and entertaining, but unfortunately my main takeaway is that Andy Warhol was a superficial ditz.
August 24, 2008
Disappointing. a few nice lines.
December 24, 2016
It's Andy Warhol, of course it's going to be a good book.
Thank you Beth for buying me this!
Thank you Beth for buying me this!
December 17, 2023
This book… omg this book. This book was the single worst reading experience I had in 2023 - honestly probably most of the 2020s as well.
The Philosophy of Andy Warhol is composed of 15 chapters, with each chapter signaling a different topic that Andy will be discussing. The chapters are compositions of either loosely-connected, half-baked takes or brutally long transcripts of conversations between Andy and his friends.
As an example of Andy’s takes, in the chapter on “Beauty” he writes,
“The most beautiful thing in Tokyo is McDonald’s. The most beautiful thing in Stockholm is McDonald’s. The most beautiful thing in Florence is McDonald’s. Peking and Moscow don’t have anything beautiful yet.”
I didn’t know anything about Andy Warhol before I read this book and, frankly, I know very little about him after finishing it. What I do know is that he likes candy, he loves America, he loves business, he loves TV, and he likes Jockey underwear.
I was forcing myself to finish this book and thought I was in the home stretch when I came upon the most unforgivable excuse for a chapter I’ve read. The 14th chapter of The Philosophy of Andy Warhol is titled, “The Tingle” - it’s still pretty unclear to me as to why. In this chapter Andy copy and pasted a transcript of his friend describing how she cleans her apartment in grueling detail for THIRTY PAGES! In the chapter Andy is describing himself falling asleep listening to this conversation. So why why why was this included. I feel like Andy likes a good prank chapter.
There were one or two interesting ideas in this book, but it’s hard to miss every shot when you’ve got 240 single-spaced pages to work with.
PS:
I saw another GR review that wondered what the world would be like if hotel’s replaced the Bible with this book. I can confidently say that should that happen, the world would be goofy asf.
The Philosophy of Andy Warhol is composed of 15 chapters, with each chapter signaling a different topic that Andy will be discussing. The chapters are compositions of either loosely-connected, half-baked takes or brutally long transcripts of conversations between Andy and his friends.
As an example of Andy’s takes, in the chapter on “Beauty” he writes,
“The most beautiful thing in Tokyo is McDonald’s. The most beautiful thing in Stockholm is McDonald’s. The most beautiful thing in Florence is McDonald’s. Peking and Moscow don’t have anything beautiful yet.”
I didn’t know anything about Andy Warhol before I read this book and, frankly, I know very little about him after finishing it. What I do know is that he likes candy, he loves America, he loves business, he loves TV, and he likes Jockey underwear.
I was forcing myself to finish this book and thought I was in the home stretch when I came upon the most unforgivable excuse for a chapter I’ve read. The 14th chapter of The Philosophy of Andy Warhol is titled, “The Tingle” - it’s still pretty unclear to me as to why. In this chapter Andy copy and pasted a transcript of his friend describing how she cleans her apartment in grueling detail for THIRTY PAGES! In the chapter Andy is describing himself falling asleep listening to this conversation. So why why why was this included. I feel like Andy likes a good prank chapter.
There were one or two interesting ideas in this book, but it’s hard to miss every shot when you’ve got 240 single-spaced pages to work with.
PS:
I saw another GR review that wondered what the world would be like if hotel’s replaced the Bible with this book. I can confidently say that should that happen, the world would be goofy asf.
March 11, 2021
"Įsivaizduojama meilė puikesnė už tikrą."
"[..] meilė ir seksas yra verslas."
"Bučiuotis maloniausia su nepasidažiusiais žmonėmis. Marilyn lūpos nebuvo patrauklios bučiuoti, tačiau be galo tiko fotografuoti."
"Kiekvienam būtina turėti svajonę."
"Žmonės sako, kad laikas viską pakeičia, bet išties keisti tenka pačiam."
„O dabar Niujorko restoranuose atsirado naujas dalykas – jie parduoda ne maistą, bet atmosferą.“
"[..] meilė ir seksas yra verslas."
"Bučiuotis maloniausia su nepasidažiusiais žmonėmis. Marilyn lūpos nebuvo patrauklios bučiuoti, tačiau be galo tiko fotografuoti."
"Kiekvienam būtina turėti svajonę."
"Žmonės sako, kad laikas viską pakeičia, bet išties keisti tenka pačiam."
„O dabar Niujorko restoranuose atsirado naujas dalykas – jie parduoda ne maistą, bet atmosferą.“
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