David Geffen

[To his ex-entertainment lawyer Eric Eisner who resigned from the presidency of The David Geffen Company in 1991 just as a deal was about to be made with some Japanese] Keep your stock. [Eric sold it.]

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.

My mother was an entrepreneur… She found being on relief humiliating. She built this business from scratch… In 1951 my mother opened this store…

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.

You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about! You’re crazy!

[In 1990 on the president of MCA calling and saying ‘We’re going to make you the biggest offer this company has ever made, and I’m going to send it to you by messenger right now.’] It’s 1990. Send me a fax.

I never aspired to be a public figure. I have always been interested primarily in real business and the development of business strategies.

Quality means doing it right when no one is looking.

Everything I do in life is framed through the view of a businessman. That’s my instinct. If I go into a pharmacy to buy shaving cream, then I’m going to look for the best deal on shaving cream.

If I had to think where I could live if not Moscow, London would be my first choice and second would be New York.

A nation that knows how to work will never suffer.

Leverage: don’t make deals without it!

This is serious business. But it doesn’t mean we can’t have some fun along the way.

Men are not great or small because of their material possessions. They are great or small because of what they are.

Every man must decide for himself whether he shall master his world or be mastered by it.

As a rule, we find what we look for; we achieve what we get ready for.

Hire character. Train skill.

Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing.

As betting at the race ring adds neither strength nor speed to the horse, so the exchange of shares in the stock market adds no capital to business, no increase in the production and no purchasing power to the market.

Does advertising corrupt editors? Yes it does, but fewer editors than you may suppose… the vast majority of editors are incorruptible.

Determine to do some thinking for yourself. Don’t live entirely upon the thoughts of others. Don’t be an automaton.