David Geffen

You have an idea of the way you think it is, and it’s not that way at all, it’s something else.

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

This Velvet Mafia thing is just another homophobic, nasty kind of thing that jealous queens make up.

[On Laura Nyro] I said to Laura ‘You know Laura, I think we should sell your music publishing company. I think right now is the right time you have three songs in the top ten this may never happen again and I think we can get a lot of money for it.’ And I made a deal with Clive Davis to sell Tuna Fish Music for $4 million. And that was a hell of a lot of money in 1969. It made her famous, it made her rich. It got people to listen to her music with her singing.

I thought Laura’s record was going to be huge… It was not successful it sold something like 20 or 30,000 albums. Laura lacked a certain level of ambition and didn’t really want to do the things that people do to become known. So I thought I’d better get people to record these songs and make them hits so that people will see that she’s a great songwriter.

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

Be happy; without reason.

Seize the moments of happiness, love and be loved! That is the only reality in the world, all else is folly. It is the one thing we are interested in here.

The smallest seed of faith is better than the largest fruit of happiness.

I love people who make me laugh.

I’ve found happiness in my work, but not in my private life. I had to take from my private life to make my public life successful. I had to make a lot of sacrifices. I was happy in Cardiff. I had a great time. Every Thursday there was a factory club; darts, dancing. I was happy until success entered my life, and then it was all downhill. Success spoilt me. It took away my happiness. My success became a barrier with my family. They couldn’t relate to me, and I couldn’t relate to them.

Happiness is the absence of striving for happiness.

Happiness cannot be travel to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude.

Happiness is a continuation of happenings which are not resisted.

Happiness is not a goal…it’s a by-product of a life well lived.

When I hold you in my arms and I feel my finger on your trigger I know no one can do me no harm because happiness is a warm gun.

A lifetime of happiness? No man alive could bear it; it would be hell on earth.

When a person can no longer laugh at himself, it is time for others to laugh at him.

The secret of happiness? Live life in the slow lane.

It is pretty hard to tell what does bring happiness; poverty and wealth have both failed.

Happiness, wealth, and success are the byproducts of goal setting; they cannot be the goals themselves.