Being born is like being kidnapped. And then sold into slavery.

Meaning of the quote

This quote is comparing being born to being kidnapped and then sold into slavery. The artist is suggesting that when we are born, we have no choice in the matter, just like someone who is kidnapped. And then, throughout our lives, we are forced to do things we may not want to do, similar to a slave who has no freedom. The quote is saying that life can feel like we have no control over what happens to us, even from the very beginning.

About Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol was a renowned American artist and filmmaker who played a leading role in the pop art movement. He was known for his iconic works, such as the Campbell’s Soup Cans and Marilyn Diptych, as well as his experimental films and the Exploding Plastic Inevitable multimedia events. Warhol’s art explored the relationship between artistic expression, advertising, and celebrity culture, and he is considered one of the most influential American artists of the 20th century.

More about the author

More quotes from Andy Warhol

My idea of a good picture is one that’s in focus and of a famous person.

Andy Warhol

American artist, film director, and producer (1928-1987)

Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art.

Andy Warhol

American artist, film director, and producer (1928-1987)

Everyone will be famous for 15 minutes.

Andy Warhol

American artist, film director, and producer (1928-1987)

Isn’t life a series of images that change as they repeat themselves?

Andy Warhol

American artist, film director, and producer (1928-1987)

I suppose I have a really loose interpretation of “work,” because I think that just being alive is so much work at something you don’t always want to do. The machinery is always going. Even when you sleep.

Andy Warhol

American artist, film director, and producer (1928-1987)

I’m afraid that if you look at a thing long enough, it loses all of its meaning.

Andy Warhol

American artist, film director, and producer (1928-1987)

Being born is like being kidnapped. And then sold into slavery.

Andy Warhol

American artist, film director, and producer (1928-1987)

Don’t pay any attention to what they write about you. Just measure it in inches.

Andy Warhol

American artist, film director, and producer (1928-1987)

Since people are going to be living longer and getting older, they’ll just have to learn how to be babies longer.

Andy Warhol

American artist, film director, and producer (1928-1987)

The most exciting thing is not doing it. If you fall in love with someone and never do it, it’s much more exciting.

Andy Warhol

American artist, film director, and producer (1928-1987)

During the 1960s, I think, people forgot what emotions were supposed to be. And I don’t think they’ve ever remembered.

Andy Warhol

American artist, film director, and producer (1928-1987)

I never think that people die. They just go to department stores.

Andy Warhol

American artist, film director, and producer (1928-1987)

The most exciting attractions are between two opposites that never meet.

Andy Warhol

American artist, film director, and producer (1928-1987)

I’m the type who’d be happy not going anywhere as long as I was sure I knew exactly what was happening at the places I wasn’t going to. I’m the type who’d like to sit home and watch every party that I’m invited to on a monitor in my bedroom.

Andy Warhol

American artist, film director, and producer (1928-1987)

I think having land and not ruining it is the most beautiful art that anybody could ever want to own.

Andy Warhol

American artist, film director, and producer (1928-1987)

I never understood why when you died, you didn’t just vanish, everything could just keep going on the way it was only you just wouldn’t be there. I always thought I’d like my own tombstone to be blank. No epitaph, and no name. Well, actually, I’d like it to say ‘figment.’

Andy Warhol

American artist, film director, and producer (1928-1987)

I have Social Disease. I have to go out every night. If I stay home one night I start spreading rumors to my dogs.

Andy Warhol

American artist, film director, and producer (1928-1987)

In the future everyone will be famous for 15 minutes.

Andy Warhol

American artist, film director, and producer (1928-1987)

What’s great about this country is that America started the tradition where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest.

Andy Warhol

American artist, film director, and producer (1928-1987)

I am a deeply superficial person.

Andy Warhol

American artist, film director, and producer (1928-1987)

I had a lot of dates but I decided to stay home and dye my eyebrows.

Andy Warhol

American artist, film director, and producer (1928-1987)

I’m bored with that line. I never use it anymore. My new line is “In 15 minutes everybody will be famous.”

Andy Warhol

American artist, film director, and producer (1928-1987)

Fantasy love is much better than reality love. Never doing it is very exciting. The most exciting attractions are between two opposites that never meet.

Andy Warhol

American artist, film director, and producer (1928-1987)

They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.

Andy Warhol

American artist, film director, and producer (1928-1987)

I like boring things.

Andy Warhol

American artist, film director, and producer (1928-1987)

I’d asked around 10 or 15 people for suggestions. Finally one lady friend asked the right question, ‘Well, what do you love most?’ That’s how I started painting money.

Andy Warhol

American artist, film director, and producer (1928-1987)

I always wished I had died, and I still wish that, because I could have gotten the whole thing over with.

Andy Warhol

American artist, film director, and producer (1928-1987)

I always thought I’d like my own tombstone to be blank. No epitaph, and no name. Well, actually, I’d like it to say “figment.”

Andy Warhol

American artist, film director, and producer (1928-1987)

Dying is the most embarrassing thing that can ever happen to you, because someone’s got to take care of all your details.

Andy Warhol

American artist, film director, and producer (1928-1987)

It’s the movies that have really been running things in America ever since they were invented. They show you what to do, how to do it, when to do it, how to feel about it, and how to look how you feel about it.

Andy Warhol

American artist, film director, and producer (1928-1987)

I’ve decided something: Commercial things really do stink. As soon as it becomes commercial for a mass market it really stinks.

Andy Warhol

American artist, film director, and producer (1928-1987)

Employees make the best dates. You don’t have to pick them up and they’re always tax-deductible.

Andy Warhol

American artist, film director, and producer (1928-1987)

If you want to know all about Andy Warhol, just look at the surface of my paintings and films and me, and there I am. There’s nothing behind it.

Andy Warhol

American artist, film director, and producer (1928-1987)

An artist is somebody who produces things that people don’t need to have.

Andy Warhol

American artist, film director, and producer (1928-1987)

I used to think that everything was just being funny but now I don’t know. I mean, how can you tell?

Andy Warhol

American artist, film director, and producer (1928-1987)

Before I was shot, I always thought that I was more half-there than all-there – I always suspected that I was watching TV instead of living life. Right when I was being shot and ever since, I knew that I was watching television.

Andy Warhol

American artist, film director, and producer (1928-1987)

Sex is more exciting on the screen and between the pages than between the sheets.

Andy Warhol

American artist, film director, and producer (1928-1987)

When I got my first television set, I stopped caring so much about having close relationships.

Andy Warhol

American artist, film director, and producer (1928-1987)

Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art. Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art.

Andy Warhol

American artist, film director, and producer (1928-1987)

Land really is the best art.

Andy Warhol

American artist, film director, and producer (1928-1987)

People need to be made more aware of the need to work at learning how to live because life is so quick and sometimes it goes away too quickly.

Andy Warhol

American artist, film director, and producer (1928-1987)

Once you ‘got’ Pop, you could never see a sign again the same way again. And once you thought Pop, you could never see America the same way again.

Andy Warhol

American artist, film director, and producer (1928-1987)

It would be very glamorous to be reincarnated as a great big ring on Liz Taylor’s finger.

Andy Warhol

American artist, film director, and producer (1928-1987)

I love Los Angeles. I love Hollywood. They’re beautiful. Everybody’s plastic, but I love plastic. I want to be plastic.

Andy Warhol

American artist, film director, and producer (1928-1987)