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

The line rejects the passive cliché that “time heals” or “time changes things” and replaces it with a Pop-art-era pragmatism: change is not an automatic property of passing days but the result of deliberate human action. Read in light of Warhol’s public persona—cool, observational, and attuned to how images and reputations are manufactured—it underscores agency over inevitability. The quote can be taken as advice about personal reinvention, artistic practice, or social transformation: waiting for circumstances to shift is a form of surrender, whereas choosing, making, and doing are what actually alter outcomes. Its punch comes from turning a familiar proverb into a call for responsibility.

1) “They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.”
2) “They say time changes things, but you have to change them yourself.”