David Geffen

If you really believe it – go for it.

It isn’t about how tall you are or how good-looking you are or whether or not you can play football. It’s about whether you can create a relationship.

[In 1994] I wouldn’t offer $5 million to stop a book about me! It’s absurd. People will do anything for attention.

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.

[On being partners with Laura Nyro in Tuna Fish Music (Laura’s favorite food was Tuna Fish)] We became partners in this new publishing company.

[On being told that he should be an agent with him having no acting ‘gifts’. And saying that you need to know absolutely nothing to be an agent.] I thought that’s the job for me.

I think every parent, every generation has wanted their children to do better and have a higher standard of living. But I think there’s too much guilt.

You are only as happy as your saddest child.

The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you’ve got it made.

I feel like a fugitive from the law of averages.

Do not confuse motion and progress. A rocking horse keeps moving but does not make any progress.

Join the dance.

We do not know who we are until we see what we can do.

You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don’t try.

Man is a comparative being. Substandard things must go before super-standard things can come.

Man minus the Machine is a slave; Man plus the Machine is a freeman.

Youth should not be slandered. Boy nature and girl nature are less repressed and therefore more wholesome today than before. If they at times seem unimpressed by their elders, it is probably because we make a matter of authority what should be a matter of conference. These young people are new people sent to this scene by Destiny to take our places. They come with new visions to fulfill, new powers to exploit.

Look beyond the individual to the cause of his misery.

If I had to live my life again, I’d make the same mistakes, only sooner.

Every nation ridicules other nations, and all are right.

Yet if today has no meaning, the past was a Blank and the future is a Chaos.