Andy Warhol was worried about a pimple he had found that morning. B, on the other end of the telephone line, told him to cover it up. Warhol got some makeup and did so. "Okay, B, okay. So now the pimple's covered. But am I covered? I have to look into the mirror for some more clues. Nothing is missing. It's all there.... The childlike, gum- chewing naivete, the glamour rooted in despair, the self-admiring carelessness, the perfected otherness, the wispiness, the shadowy, voyeuristic, vaguely sinister aura, the pale, soft-spoken magical presence, the skin and bones.... The albino-chalk skin. Parchmentlike. Reptilian. Almost blue.... The roadmap of scars.... The shaggy silver-white hair, soft and metallic.... It's all there, B. Nothing is missing. I'm everything my scrapbook says I am."

This obsessive self-description appears in the late American artist Andy Warhol's 1975 book, The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (From A to...