David Geffen

[On his donation of $100 million to UCLA in 2012 adding to the $200 million he donated in 2002] The cost of a world-class medical education should not deter our future innovators, doctors and scientists from the path they hope to pursue. We need the students at this world-class institution to be driven by determination and the desire to do their best work and not by the fear of crushing debt. I hope in doing this that others will be inspired to do the same.

That had her lip-syncing to a record… There was no protection for her as a person or as an artist…

Happy is harder than money. Anyone who thinks money will make them happy, doesn’t have money.

I used to be able to read memo’s upside down… It was like going to the college of the entertainment business.

[On urging Nyro to tell Barbara Streisand that ‘Wedding Bell Blues’ had been personally written for her] It’s not a big lie.

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

There are very few men of genius in advertising agencies. But we need all we can find. Almost without exception they are disagreeable. Don’t destroy them. They lay golden eggs.

There should be rivalry between men and between business.

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

I have had the top people in the world into One Hyde Park, and they have seen everything and they say there is nothing quite like this.

We have had just one main purpose during these years, and that is to give the people transportation of the most dependable quality at the lowest possible cost. Our car was called the Universal Car thirty years ago, because it fulfilled so many needs; it is The Universal Car today for the same reason.

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

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

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

I avoid clients for whom advertising is only a marginal factor in their marketing mix. They have an awkward tendency to raid their advertising appropriations whenever they need cash for other purposes.

I quickly figured out [that] the one ability I’d better have is to create relationships.

The best ideas come as jokes. Make your thinking as funny as possible.

Your business, and your brand must first let people know what you care about and that you care about them.

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.

…capitalism does live by crises and booms, just as a human being lives by inhaling and exhaling.

We get real results only in proportion to the real values we give.