David Geffen

[To a psychedelic rock sextet call Strawberry Alarm Clock] We’re going to get you six Ed Sullivan shows and we’re going to get you on Janis Joplin’s next tour. [After the meeting on being told by Schiffman ‘David, what are you doing? Six Ed Sullivan shows? Are you kidding? Janis Joplin wouldn’t piss on these people! We are not going to give them any Janis Joplin dates’] If they have another hit, we’ll get them one Ed Sullivan show, and we’ll get them a couple of dates on somebody else’s tour. I don’t care. And if they don’t have another hit, well, f*ck ’em.

[On his early day in the music business] I stepped on a lot of toes… at that time.

In my experience, there was never anything quite like the egos in CSNY.

We got killed in Newsweek.

Oh please. A Gay Mafia? This is so crazy. This is insane. I think he needs a psychiatrist. It’s so paranoid, and so crazy, and so irresponsible, and makes him look like such a nut. It’s beyond crazy. On a scale of 1 to 10 crazy, it’s 11… He’s made a fool of himself, and he’s made a huge failure of his life. To say you’ve been brought down by the Gay Mafia and its allies is as crazy as anything I’ve ever heard in my life… Did I mention his extraordinary homophobia?

[In 1990 on the president of MCA calling and saying ‘We’re going to make you the biggest offer this company has ever made, and I’m going to send it to you by messenger right now.’] It’s 1990. Send me a fax.

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.

Without risk, there isn’t any living communication.

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

I have dined with kings, I’ve been offered wings. And I’ve never been too impressed.

Wear the old coat and buy the new book.

The Argument from Intimidation is a confession of intellectual impotence.

You are mine, and that means I am on your side even when no one else is.

If there’s only one answer, then this must not be a very interesting topic.

Patriotism is a pernicious, psychopathic form of idiocy.

Trying to determine what is going on in the world by reading newspapers is like trying to tell the time by watching the second hand of a clock.

A powerful agent is the right word. Whenever we come upon one of those intensely right words… the resulting effect is physical as well as spiritual, and electrically prompt.

I’ve sworn never to read any reviews ever again except those that are pointed out to me as nice ones. I would say that most of us who are considered in the artist realm just take it so terribly, and, you know, it can kill ya!

It takes an enemy and a friend, working together, to hurt you to the heart. The one to slander you, and the other to get the news to you.

We’re so afraid of each other… Colour, wealth, these things that don’t really matter still play too much of a role in how we see one another. And it’s sad, because the thing that least defines us is the colour of our skin.

Everything has its limit – iron ore cannot be educated into gold.