David Geffen

I didn’t really have any idea of what Hollywood was except that it was a place where the made movies.

When I go to see Iron Man 3, I’m not as enthralled as I was when I saw The Bridge on the River Kwai.

Starting a new studio was a thrilling challenge, but it was more stressful than fun. I never took a salary, a bonus or expenses. I learned never to do anything you’re not passionate about.

I have no talent except for being able to enjoy and recognize it in others.

In the end, you’re just a renter anyway. You only own these things for as long as you live. After that, who knows? If I live until I’m 80, I’ll have 30 more years of collecting. If the collection is big enough, I’ll build a museum. And if not, I’ll leave it to a museum.

This is between us! You know this is the best thing for the company.

The competitor to be feared is one who never bothers about you at all, but goes on making his own business better all the time.

I don’t hire a lot of number-crunchers, and I don’t trust fancy marketing surveys. I do my own surveys and draw my own conclusions.

A business has to be involving, it has to be fun, and it has to exercise your creative instincts.

The secret of long life is double careers. One to about age sixty, then another for the next thirty years.

I decided to sit quietly and do business and don’t stick your neck out and tell everybody everything belongs to me. That would only cause problems for myself. Therefore I never told these stories or declared all these things to anyone.

I’ve learned a tremendous amount from Oprah.

Asking me to come work here is the dumbest idea you ever had. It has been a waste of a year.

Rule No. 1: Never lose money. Rule No. 2: Never forget Rule No.1.

Advertising is only evil when it advertises evil things.

Chris and I came from nothing. We’re selfmade. We started with nothing, so we have nothing to lose. And we have everything to gain.

The tooth fairy teaches children that they can sell body parts for money.

We can serve our customers well only if our buying jobs are right. You cannot sell if you haven’t ordered wanted goods into your store.

Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black.

I always kind of see how I want things to be better, and I’m generally not happy with how things are or the level of service that we’re providing for people or the quality of the teams that we built. But if you look at this objectively, we’re doing so well on so many of these things. I think it’s important to have gratitude for that.

Without a customer, you don’t have a business, all you have is a hobby.