David Geffen

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

We got killed in Newsweek.

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

[on Bill and Hillary Clinton] Everybody in politics lies, but they do it with such ease, it’s troubling.

I must have had a dozen jobs and I got fired from all of them.

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

I’ve had many nicknames over the years: V, Nessa, Nessy Poo, Nessy Bear and Van. Only my parents call me Van, though, and I hate it. I get embarrassed.

What cha saying boy, you think Im playing boy, watch ya mouth girl, its a mans world.

I don’t know if it was much of an interview. We just shot the breeze.

I’m the type to swallow my blood ‘fore I swallow my pride.

I love hearing educated people talk and just shut everyone up. Knowledge is always the loudest voice.

When I was a kid, I’d be there in the stands thinking: ‘Come on Wolves, do it for me!’….And here I am again: ‘Come on Wolves,’ pleading with a borrowed laptop!

I’m not sensitive, I give people things exactly the way they are, and if they’re ready to absorb it they will, and if they aren’t they won’t.

I don’t see Johnny Depp as attractive!

His (Freddie Mercury) words got better quickly. There were some very overt lyrics. Don’t Stop Me Now is a good example. He was having a good time, and that was very much a cri de coeur. Some lyrics we wrote together like I’m Going Slightly Mad, which was funny. We had fun coming up with daft things, all those ridiculous phrases. I’d say it was Freddie’s actual musicality which was the cleverest thing of all, the notes, and his harmonic structure was quite brilliant. When he wrote The Fairy Feller’s Master-Stroke, on the second album, he was crossing sections of six-part harmonies, and I thought: “Bloody hell, that is tricky stuff.” Then there’s The March Of The Black Queen, which is almost like prog-rock, and so outrageously complicated that I can’t even remember the arrangement myself. When you write songs that complex, you have to work hard at it, and it did invoke a lot of head-scratching. But then he’d come up with Killer Queen or, later on, lots of simple things like Crazy Little Thing. He had it on all sides. Freddie evolved. I always called him ‘the man who invented himself’. I think the talent was innate, but he dug deep inside himself and forced it out. His determination was quite something.

I think social media has given everyone a voice. Social media makes everyone a celebrity on some level. I think that diminishes the power of an artist who bases their trade on their talent, that’s one of the downfalls. But the good thing is that you can connect with your fans all the time.

You don’t need anybody to tell you who you are or what you are. You are what you are!

I was just taking out my trash and I had, like, 300 cans of Diet Coke. It was just like, ‘How did that happen?’ I don’t even remember buying them. I also like Cinnamon Toast Crunch. My addictions are pretty much the only things I consume.

I have my moments – usually twice every album – when I basically lose it.

The fact that I am a young woman who doesn’t need a man for money. I don’t need a man for a job. I’ve never had to f**k for beats. I’ve never had to f**k for a record deal. I don’t have those pressures. I get up when I want, shop when I want.

I managed to pick out some pretty special people.