David Geffen

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.

Do any of us really have a clue? We don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow. Or what word will come up in a conversation that will change our lives. You can be in the shower and scrubbing under your arm and find a lump that wasn’t there yesterday. I’m doing things here and now. Life is evolving. Every day life evolves.

I thought I’d be a success even back in the mailroom at William Morris. It was just inconceivable to me I couldn’t win it all.

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

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

[On Calvin Klein asking him ‘Why don’t you call it Geffen Records?’] People in the record business just don’t do that. They come up with names likes Asylum, Capricorn, or Island. [Calvin Klein said if you put your own name on the door ‘You’ll get laid more.’]

Once you have a product that you are happy with, you the need to centralize things to continue growth.

Like a midwife, I make my living bringing new babies into the world, except that mine are new advertising campaigns.

Good publicity is preferable to bad, but from a bottom-line perspective, bad publicity is sometimes better than no publicity at all. Controversy, in short, sells.

I do not believe a man can ever leave his business. He ought to think of it by day and dream of it by night.

While several parties have expressed interest in buying the company, I’m not shopping it, I haven’t sold it and I’m not about to sell it.

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.

I feel that the best companies are started not because the founder wanted a company but because the founder wanted to change the world… If you decide you want to found a company, you maybe start to develop your first idea. And hire lots of workers.

Growth is never by mere chance; it is the result of forces working together.

I have very good executives and great children. They’re very good.

The five separate fingers are five independent units. Close them and the fist multiplies strength. This is organization.

A brand is two words: the ‘Promise’ you telegraph, and the ‘Experience’ you deliver.

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

What’s the quickest way to become a millionaire? Borrow fivers off everyone you meet.

The highest use of capital is not to make more money, but to make money do more for the betterment of life.

A good advertisement is one which sells the product without drawing attention to itself.