"I have Social Disease. I have to go out every night. If I stay home one night I start spreading rumors to my dogs"
About this Quote
The dogs are the perfect Warholian prop. They’re domestic, loyal, and nonjudgmental - the opposite of the scene he built his brand on. Saying he’ll “start spreading rumors” to them treats gossip as involuntary discharge, like sneezing. That’s the subtext: in a world where attention is currency, talk becomes reflex. You don’t just attend culture; you metabolize it, excrete it, keep the circulation going.
Context matters: Warhol’s Factory era wasn’t simply about art objects, it was about manufacturing visibility. Parties, openings, and late-night drop-ins were part of the production line, where people became images and images became people. The quote reads like self-mockery, but it’s also a business model in miniature: stay out, stay seen, stay in the feed (before feeds existed). Beneath the deadpan is a real anxiety - that stillness equals disappearance - and Warhol, the patron saint of surfaces, admits the fear without ever sounding sincere enough to be embarrassed by it.
Quote Details
| Topic | Witty One-Liners |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Warhol, Andy. (2026, January 15). I have Social Disease. I have to go out every night. If I stay home one night I start spreading rumors to my dogs. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-have-social-disease-i-have-to-go-out-every-29834/
Chicago Style
Warhol, Andy. "I have Social Disease. I have to go out every night. If I stay home one night I start spreading rumors to my dogs." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-have-social-disease-i-have-to-go-out-every-29834/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I have Social Disease. I have to go out every night. If I stay home one night I start spreading rumors to my dogs." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-have-social-disease-i-have-to-go-out-every-29834/. Accessed 22 Feb. 2026.




