Hey. Aren’t you tired of writing the same boring, careful, formulaic sets of questions of answers? Have to prepare for an upcoming news conference? Better grind through a set of dirty Qs & As to steel the execs. Building a new web site? Better whip out some ready FAQs to lead the blind and unwilling.

I often find writing questions and answers very dull work (except for the occasional thrill of inserting a question I know my clients will either find impossible or impossibly uncomfortable to answer).

That’s why I grabbed “I’ll Be Your Mirror: The Selected Andy Warhol Interviews” off the library shelf this week. Warhol’s approach to the utilitarian question and answer session could swing from barely responsive to creatively destructive: he would break out of the boundaries of the interview - often by drawing other members of his Factory group into the conversation, or by consciously undermining the implied authority of the interviewer by producing his own microphone and tape recorder.

There are many well-known quotes from his interviews. I’ve pulled from two pieces in the book: I may pull out more as I work through it.

Warhol on the routine of the interview genre:

“Interviews are like sitting in those Ford machines at the World’s Fair that toured you around while someone spoke a commentary; I always feel that my words are coming from behind me, not from me. The interviewer should just tell me the words he wants me to say and I’ll repeat them after him. I think that would be so great because I’m so empty I just can’t think of anything to say.” (”Andy Warhol:My True Story”, by Gretchen Berg)

Warhol, being interviewed interviewed by Tape Recording magazine, on his first impressions after using the new video recording technology:

Tape Recording (TR): How will video tape affect home movies?

Warhol: It will replace home movies …

TR: Have you recorded from a television set with the video recorder?

Warhol: Yes. This is so great. We’ve done it both direct and form the screen. Even the pictures from the screen are terrific …

TR: What else can people do with their home video recorders?

Warhol: Make the best pornography movies. It’s going to be so great.

TR: You think Mr. and Mrs. America will …

Warhol: Yes. And they’ll have their friends in to show them.

TR: Any other things you like about the video recorder?

Warhol: Oh, yes. You can spy on people with it, too. I believe in television. It’s going to take over from movies. … (”Pop Goes the Videotape: an Underground Interview with Andy Warhol,” by Richard Ekstract)

[tags] interview, Warhol, Gretchen Berg, question and answer, Q&A [/tags]