"Andy always had young people around him at all points of his life. Fresh blood with fresh ideas. It was good for him to be around, and for us it was good because it was giving us this whole seal of approval – the ultimate approval you could get was from Andy. Everyone looked up to him. He was the only figure that represented any real forerunner of the attitude about making art in a more public way and dealing with art as part of the real world. Even when we became friends, I was always still sort of in awe of him. But everyone who knew Andy talks about him as if he was the sweetest, most generous, simple, kind person. People have a hard time believing that; they have the media image of him that was totally damaged by the whole Edie Sedgwick thing – Andy as a bloodsucking vampire taking advantage of people and throwing them away. People felt this meanness toward him. When you actually knew Andy, you saw that it was completely unfounded. It stemmed from other people’s jealousy at not being his friend, not being part of the whatever, the inner circle, so they would attack it and blame their own misfortune on him because he was a good scapegoat."