and so ijust knew, "i can't do this. "i have to be more actively involved somehow." so what changed, then? what made you an artist? well, at the end of the first year at the courtauld, i'd gone to an andy warhol opening and i'd met him. he signed something for me, and then i'd met him two nights later and spent time in his company. and then gone to the factory and been there for a couple of weeks on and off, and just being in his orbit and seeing his world and the world he'd created for himself was very... it kind of ruined me, really. you should just explain the factory, his, his headquarters in new york, which was his office, his studio, his film studio. everything. he painted in the basement. so the factory was basically his world, his world vision ina building. so it was very exciting to be there, but we were just hanging out, really, and just like breathing it in. as an experience, at that age, to be with someone who's sort of mythic — he was mythic then — was amazing. what did that do for your creative imagination? that must have changed