David Geffen

[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.

[To Robertson] I think you should move to California. Malibu is paradise. You can always change your mind. Why don’t you just let me put this together? I’ll get you a house in the Malibu Colony.

There were no role models, there were no other people I knew who were dealing with the same issues that I was dealing with. I had no idea if this was a stage I was going through or not. But I go to the draft board in Brooklyn and I fill out the form and there was a question that said ‘Do you have homosexual tendencies?’ and I check yes. But where-ever I was on line I’d see people I went to high school with and I was afraid of anyone knowing this about me so I kept on falling back into line and falling back into line. If you said you had homosexual tendencies they sent you to a psychiatrist. He said ‘I see here you’ve checked the box?’ And I said ‘yup’. He said ‘So do you think you’d have a problem serving in the armed forces?’ I said well you know ‘So many men.’ And I was out of the service.

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.

I came in early every day for six months till I intercepted the letter from UCLA saying they’d never heard of me. I replaced it with a letter that said I’d graduated.

Did I have a problem with lying to get the job? None whatsoever.

Test ideas in the marketplace. You learn from hearing a range of perspectives. Consultation helps engender the support decisions need to be successfully implemented.

Listen more than you talk. Nobody learned anything by hearing themselves speak.

Salesmanship is limitless. Our very living is selling. We are all salespeople.

Building a mission and building a business go hand in hand. The primary thing that excites me is the mission. But we have always had a healthy understanding that we need to do both.

The best reason to start an organization is to make meaning; to create a product or service to make the world a better place.

A business absolutely devoted to service will have only one worry about profits. They will be embarrassingly large.

The thought in my mind was that I must be a good merchant. If I were a good merchant, the rest would probably take care of itself.

The five separate fingers are five independent units. Close them and the fist multiplies strength. This is organization.

Not everybody is some kind of media model.

Competition is the keen cutting edge of business, always shaving away at costs.

I never insisted that I was a good student.

After the situation with Kursk submarine, I started looking at Mr. Berezovsky in a completely different way. For me, it was a turning point in our relationship. I think that he took a completely dishonorable position.

I think everybody thought I was crazy that I quit my job and started a management company in which I was managing one client – Laura Nyro.

Do not be embarrassed by your failures, learn from them and start again.

I myself never make any notes. Usually, if I write something down, I can’t read it afterwards.