The former Penn State defensive coordinator has been charged with 40 counts of molesting eight boys over 15 years.
Sandusky told the New York Times he and Paterno never spoke about an alleged 2002 incident or a 1998 child molestation complaint.
He also told the newspaper that prosecutors have misunderstood his work with children and that he never sexually abused any child.
"They've taken everything that I ever did for any young person and twisted it to say that my motives were sexual or whatever," he said. "I had kid after kid after kid who might say I was a father figure. And they just twisted that all."
Sandusky is accused of using his Second Mile charity to find underprivileged boys to abuse. Sandusky told the Times that the charity never restricted his access to children until he became the subject of a criminal investigation in 2008.
Penn State's board of trustees fired Paterno in November, saying he didn't go far enough in alerting authorities.
Sandusky is free on bail until a preliminary hearing on Dec. 13.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
