David Geffen

[On school] Not only did I know that I wasn’t one of the smart kids in the class, but so did everyone else.

[On Roberts saying ‘I don’t know if I want to give up my whole management company and take it apart.’] Don’t be stupid. I’ll make you more money than you’ve made alone.

I never thought that I would have a career in show business…

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

It isn’t about how tall you are or how good-looking you are or whether or not you can play football. It’s about whether you can create a relationship.

[On his mother] She certainly ran her own race… I thought my mother was nuts.

Success does not consist in never making mistakes but in never making the same one a second time.

I don’t think people get to be successful without ambition.

We learned about gratitude and humility – that so many people had a hand in our success, from the teachers who inspired us to the janitors who kept our school clean… and we were taught to value everyone’s contribution and treat everyone with respect.

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

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

All you need is ignorance and confidence and the success is sure.

When you’re successful, things have a momentum and you can’t tell if you have created the momentum or it’s creating you.

All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, and then Success is sure.

The first step toward success is taken when you refuse to be a captive of the environment in which you first find yourself.

Losing is tough.

You may only succeed if you desire succeeding; you may only fail if you do not mind failing.

A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and gets to bed at night, and in between he does what he wants to do.

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.

If I had to select one quality and one personal characteristic that I regard as being most highly correlated with success, whatever the field, I would pick persistence I and determination. The will to endure to the end, to get knocked down seventy times and get up off the floor saying, “Here comes number seventy one”.

There are two types of people who will tell you that you cannot make a difference in this world: those who are afraid to try and those who are afraid you will succeed.