David Geffen Quotes

I never went to business school. I was just bumbling through a lot of my life. I was like the guy behind the curtain in The Wizard of Oz.

Anybody who thinks money will make you happy, hasn’t got money.

I believe we’re all in denial about the people we love.

[On his first job in the mailroom of William Morris a casting agency] It was the first time in the my life that I thought ‘I can do that.’

It was just inconceivable to me I couldn’t win it all.

We are each a figment of our own imagination.

[On leaving Brooklyn] I left the day I graduated high school.

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

I intend to be me. Whatever that is.

There were no role models, there were no other people I knew who were dealing with the same issues that I was dealing with. I had no idea if this was a stage I was going through or not. But I go to the draft board in Brooklyn and I fill out the form and there was a question that said ‘Do you have homosexual tendencies?’ and I check yes. But where-ever I was on line I’d see people I went to high school with and I was afraid of anyone knowing this about me so I kept on falling back into line and falling back into line. If you said you had homosexual tendencies they sent you to a psychiatrist. He said ‘I see here you’ve checked the box?’ And I said ‘yup’. He said ‘So do you think you’d have a problem serving in the armed forces?’ I said well you know ‘So many men.’ And I was out of the service.

[on Steve jobs] Our relationship was based almost always on him calling up and asking, ‘Is this a good deal?’ I’m not in his business, and I wasn’t trying to be. I was just a guy who admired him a lot and was flattered he wanted my advice.

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.’

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

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.

Of course it scored well! It was all fags and old people!

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

We all acquire damage as infants and children and we work on removing those scars all of our lives. You won’t heal everything, but what’s important is the work.

Did I have a problem with lying to get the job? None whatsoever.

I buy my clothes at J.Crew online. I’m a very casual guy.

There are so many people who are trying to make it in the music business. It’s a very open business, more open I think than any other area of show business.

I probably didn’t handle things as diplomatically as I should.