David Geffen

I wasn’t looking to be gay. I was quite upset when I discovered that was part of my life. I wished it would go away. But you can’t change who you are. And I tried to fight it in the beginning. And then I had a cancer scare in the mid-70’s. And that turned out to be a mistake, and I thought, ‘Life is too short.’

[To Jimmy Webb] You’re really interested in a career? Wow, I just thought you were some guy who hung out in Las Vegas with Connie Stevens.

I’m not Sammy Glick. I’ve never killed anyone. I don’t have to. I’m too talented.

I’ve earned all this money. I’ve worked for it. I didn’t cheat anybody. I didn’t issue junk bonds and put people out of work. I earned it. And I live relatively modestly given my level of success and wealth.

I’m a great believer in anything that makes you 1 percent better. So I try everything. Freudian. Jungian. Est. Life Spring. Course in Miracles. Twelve Steps. I have pain from time to time. I have joy from time to time.

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

Honest criticism is hard to take, particularly from a relative, a friend, an acquaintance, or a stranger.

Even in the presence of others he was completely alone.

Learn when’s a good time to shut up.

I’m the one that has to die when it’s time for me to die, so let me live my life, the way I want to.

If your neighbor has a completely different view on abortion, gay marriage, stem cell research, all of those things, you still are both Americans. Neither one of you is necessarily more patriotic than the other. Neither loves their country any more than the other one does.

I do not believe, even remotely, that you have to have a partner in your life in order to be whole, in order to be complete, in order to be fulfilled. You just don’t have to.

The universe, at any given point, in any given time, is expanding indefinitely in all directions. So trust me when I say, ‘you are the center of mine.’

I mean, if you degrade someone, you isolate them, you control them, you call them names, you demean them. That’s a horrible existence for people.

Greatest thing in life is experience. Even mistakes have value.

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit.

All begins with you surrounding yourself with the right people—the good and authentic people—and “unsurrounding” yourself with the wrong people. And we both know there are plenty of wrong people in this world.

Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself; but talent instantly recognizes genius.

I know all those people. I have friendly, social, and criminal relations with the whole lot of them.

The basically simple things are best, whether it’s automobiles or diets or philosophy.

What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.