David Geffen

From the day I arrived, California seemed like an enchanted land.

There are so many people who are trying to make it in the music business. It’s a very open business, more open I think than any other area of show business.

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

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

[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 acting] I just enjoyed it as soon as I started doing it. It fulfilled something in me, and I’m so lucky that I found it.

My husband said it was him or the cat. I miss him sometimes.

You have to be quite stupid to act.

I grew up in a family of Republicans. And when I was 18 and registering to vote, my mom’s only instruction was ‘You just go in and pull the big Republican lever.’ That’s my welcome to adulthood. She’s like, ‘No, don’t even read it. Just pull the Republican lever.

I find Hollywood really toxic.

A hero is someone who understands the responsibility that comes with his freedom.

An awful lot of gay pop stars pretend to be straight. I’m going to start a movement of straight pop stars pretending to be gay.

[While Amy Poehler and I were doing press for Sisters,] every single interviewer asked, ‘Isn’t this an amazing time for women in comedy?’ People really wanted us to be openly grateful-‘Thank you so much!’-and we were like, ‘No, it’s a terrible time. If you were to really look at it, the boys are still getting more money for a lot of garbage, while the ladies are hustling and doing amazing work for less.’

If I didn’t do what I do, I wouldn’t be as young as I am.

The weird thing is, when Darrell Hammond or Will Ferrell or Dana Carvey did an impersonation of a president, no one assumed it was personal, but because Sarah Palin and I are both women and people think women are meaner to each other, everyone assumed it was personal.

I really had to think and learn about musical intervals.

At this point, we aren’t just flirting with disaster; we’re rounding third base and asking if disaster has any condoms.

I don’t even listen to music when I’m off tour.

Entertainment isn’t just based on the very structured syndrome of European popular music, and it’s great that there are so many thousands of people who are of the same opinion.

My role in society, or any artist’s or poet’s role, is to try and express what we all feel. Not to tell people how to feel. Not as a preacher, not as a leader, but as a reflection of us all.