David Geffen

People who are fools don’t get successful, and they don’t get to be successful if they are worried about their popularity.

[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.’

I forgive you for all the times you’ve f**ked me in the past and for all the times you’re going to f**k me in the future.

Why not blame the libraries? They’re full of violent books.

There has always been a tremendous obsession with television and movie stars, and with the people involved with the business.

It’s not a very big thing to say, ‘I made a mistake’ on the war, and typical of Hillary Clinton that she can’t.

To succeed, you need to find something to hold on to, something to motivate you, something to inspire you.

[As a child] I want to earn a thousand dollars a week, have an apartment on Ocean Parkway, and drive a Cadillac convertible.

It was just inconceivable to me I couldn’t win it all.

It’s a great thing when you can show that you’ve been successful and that you’ve made a lot of money and that you’ve employed a lot of people.

The rich. You know why they’re so odd? Because they can afford to be.

The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything.

There are only two rules for being successful. One, figure out exactly what you want to do, and two, do it.

A successful person finds the right place for himself. But a successful leader finds the right place for others.

Can success change the human mechanism so completely between one dawn and another? Can it make one feel taller, more alive, handsomer, uncommonly gifted and indomitably secure with the certainty that this is the way life will always be? It can and it does!

The uncommon man is merely the common man thinking and dreaming of success in larger terms and in more fruitful areas.

If you want to double your success rate, you need to double your failure rate.

I thought I’d be a success even back in the mailroom at William Morris. It was just inconceivable to me I couldn’t win it all.

One of the problems when you become successful is that jealousy and envy inevitably follow. There are people-I categorize them as life’s losers-who get their sense of accomplishment and achievement from trying to stop others. As far as I’m concerned, if they had any real ability they wouldn’t be fighting me, they’d be doing something constructive themselves.

I’ve become very successful over the years. I think I own among the greatest properties in the world.

A minute of success pays for years of failure.