Artists behave, or publicity-savvy artists do, in synergy with the image of their art. But what if the public personality is removable like a mask and a different reality lies beneath, merely waiting for the means and opportunity to be itself? What if Andy Warhol, famously laconic art luminary, had decided just once, at the right, liberating yet confidential moment, to give an articulate, self-revealing interview ... ?

Scene, the Factory. Time, early 1987.

Nigel Andrews: Andy Warhol, I’d like you to suppose that it’s 2007 and you are looking back on your career. You need no longer project the image of a tongue-tied messiah of culture – a stammering saint of pop art at bay against overzealous intellectualisers – but can freely express your philosophy of film, painting, aesthetics and life.