David Geffen

[On his mother’s adversity] She had a very difficult beginning… All of my mothers family were killed… and she came to America at the time of the depression. It was not an easy life at all.

[On Lou Adler] Lou really had a production deal called a label, whereas we had a real label. We had a great many artists, whereas he had very few. Lou also produced most of the stuff that came out on Ode. We were not producers.

I was sleeping on a couch in my brothers apartment, and one day this guy walked over and said ‘How would you like to be in a movie?’ And I said ‘Yeah!’ I was an extra in ‘Explosive Generation’.

[In 1969] I thought how awful, this poor girl is being managed by someone who had no respect for her at all… I’ve been her agent since then.

I quickly figured out [that] the one ability I’d better have is to create relationships.

[On his first job in the mailroom of William Morris a casting agency] It was the first time in the my life that I thought ‘I can do that.’

If you keep saying things are going to be bad, you have a chance of being a prophet.

I have opinions of my own, strong opinions, but I don’t always agree with them.

“He who angers you, conquers you.” – Elizabeth Kenny

Whenever you think it’s the end, it’s probably just the start of something else.

I know the look of an apple that is roasting and sizzling on the hearth on a winter’s evening, and I know the comfort that comes of eating it hot, along with some sugar and a drench of cream… I know how the nuts taken in conjunction with winter apples, cider, and doughnuts, make old people’s tales and old jokes sound fresh and crisp and enchanting.

Understanding is simple. Knowing is complicated.

Ageing’s alright, better than the alternative, which is not being here.

If we knew the meaning to everything that is happening to us, then there would be no meaning.

Enthusiasm is the yeast that makes your hopes shine to the stars.

Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination.

You know I don’t wanna come on ungrateful, but that warren report, you know as well as me, just didn’t make it. You know, like they might as well have asked some banana salesman from des moines, who was up in toronto on the big day, if he saw anyone around looking suspicious…

I don’t think I’ve made mistakes. Every time somebody said I made a mistake, they do the polls and my numbers go up, so I guess I haven’t made any mistakes.

Me: Unbothered, moisturized, in my lane, well-hydrated, flourishing.

America is one of the few places in the world where a poorperson can still be obese.

I don’t substitute anybody else’s judgment for my own.