David Geffen

Some people have a greater ability to imagine than others.

[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.

My father died in 1960. He was an intellectual. . . . She made the money and he read a lot. He wasn’t successful or ambitious. He spoke lots of languages. There were times that kids said to me, ‘What does your father do?’ and I had to make something up because I actually didn’t know what he did.

If you’re successful, people will talk about you. There’s nothing you can do about it. People make up stories.

I had worked for Warner Brothers most of my adult life, and I was totally enthralled by the world that this guy had created. So I bought the house. And I sold Warner Brothers all the scripts, the Oscars, the mementoes for $3 million, which they’re going to use for a museum. I sold some of the rest of the stuff for $7 million. And I kept millions of dollars of furniture and silver. So I was really paying about $34 million for prime Beverly Hills property.

You can’t do this! We have an arrangement! We have a contract!

Bankers are just like anybody else, only richer

Today, there are three kinds of people: the have’s, the have-not’s, and the have-not-paid-for-what-they-have’s.

A dollar picked up in the road is more satisfaction to us than the 99 which we had to work for, and the money won at Faro or in the stock market snuggles into our hearts in the same way.

A bank is a place where they lend you an umbrella in fair weather and ask for it back when it begins to rain.

The safe way to double your money is to fold it over once and put it in your pocket.

Sex is one of the most wholesome, beautiful and natural experiences that money can buy

Never spend your money before you have it.

The lack of money is the root of all evils.

Money will buy you a fine dog, but only love can make it wag its tail!

All I ask is the chance to prove that money can’t make me happy.

I’m living so far beyond my income that we may almost be said to be living apart.

You can’t borrow your way to prosperity. Look for ways to create value and you will attract money.

I don’t wake up for less than $10,000 a day.

If you want to make a million you don’t have to understand money, what you have to understand is people’s fears about money.

What is the robbing of a bank compared to the FOUNDING of a bank?