POTENT QUOTABLES

On Andy Warhol’s Birthday, the Best Zingers From His Diaries

Two decades after his death, Andy Warhol somehow still has one of Twitters’s best—and snarkiest—accounts.


Andy Warhol and Bianca Jagger at Tavern on the Green for Bette Davis' birthday party
Images Press/Getty Images

Andy Warhol was known for being the quieter one at parties—the one who chose to orchestrate the madness at, say, Studio 54, rather than truly participate in it—but the artist and man about town, who would have turned 89 today, still undeniably had a way with words, and not just when it comes to brief but unforgettable phrases like “in the future, everybody will be world-famous for 15 minutes.”

Just take the fact that though he died decades before Donald Trump became president, he still managed to squeeze in some particularly salty words about Trump, who was in fact obsessed with the artist, and who in turn, Warhol called “cheap” and “a butch guy.”

Those words came from some ’80s entries of The Andy Warhol Diaries, a collection published posthumously, in 1989, by Warhol’s friend and collaborator, the writer Pat Hackett. (Starting in the mid-’70s, the pair would talk on the phone about Warhol’s days, which Hackett, would dutifully record what Warhol quipped on a legal pad.) But there’s another source for getting to know Warhol, the pundit: a variety of Twitter accounts, the most notable being @WarholsDiary, aka “Andy Lives,” which since 2011 has been excerpting and regularly tweeting out quotes from his diaries as if the artist actually had a Twitter account. (Which he definitely would have, knowing how much he loved fame and showing off his famous pals.)

The quotes are particularly illuminating; the account’s first, timeliest lesson is what not to have gotten Warhol for his birthday—and good thing the late designer Halston also isn’t around these days to read this, though it does also seem like the pair had a lot of fun:

Andy Warhol, ? 1981 at Rupert Smith’s Birthday Party at 65 Irving. (Photo by Patrick McMullan/Getty Images)

Patrick McMullan

That’s hardly the only one of Warhol’s zingers, which he seemed to have been itching to dispense—despite another of his famous quotes, “I think everybody should be nice to everybody”:

There are, however, some kind words squeezed in there, too:

As well as one of today’s primary uses of social media: to complain:

It’s not too hard to imagine that last one coming out of the mouth of Jared Leto, who’s reportedly set to play Warhol in his upcoming biopic.

That Time Andy Warhol Kissed John Lennon, and More of Christopher Makos’s Studio 54-Era Snapshots

Andy Warhol, Centre Pompidou, 1986. Photo by Christopher Makos.

Andy Warhol with Bikers on West Side Highway, NYC, 1981. Photo by Christopher Makos.

Andy Warhol, Detroit, 1985. Photo by Christopher Makos.

Andy Warhol, Altered Image, 1981. Photo by Christopher Makos.

Andy Warhol Painting the Flag, 1983. Photo by Christopher Makos.

Andy Warhol Applying Makeup to Debbie Harry, 1980. Photo by Christopher Makos.

Andy Warhol at Philip Johnson’s Glass House, 1981. Photo by Christopher Makos.

Andy Warhol Kissing John Lennon, 1978. Photo by Christopher Makos.

The Gang of Four at Studio 54 (Liza Minnelli, Andy Warhol, Bianca Jagger, and Halston), 1978. Photo by Christopher Makos.

Andy Warhol, Tiananmen Square, 1982. Photo by Christopher Makos.

Jean-Michel Basquiat, 1984. Photo by Christopher Makos.

David Hockney, 1977. Photo by Christopher Makos.

Keith Richards, 1977. Photo by Christopher Makos.

Lou Reed, 1978. Photo by Christopher Makos.

Mick Jagger, 1977. Photo by Christopher Makos.

Debbie Harry, 1977. Photo by Christopher Makos.

Andy Warhol Kissing Ultra Violet, 1978. Photo by Christopher Makos.

Keith Haring, 1983. Photo by Christopher Makos.

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Related: A Brief History of Donald Trump’s Unrequited Love of Andy Warhol, Who Called Him “Cheap”

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