David Geffen

Should I give up my career at this point in my life… and put all my marbles in Laura’s [Nyro] basket?

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

If you said you had homosexual tendencies they sent you to a psychiatrist.

I don’t think people get to be successful unless they have very strong egos.

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.

That had her lip-syncing to a record… There was no protection for her as a person or as an artist…

There is no need for advertisements to look like advertisements. If you make them look like editorial pages, you will attract about 50 per cent more readers.

The main job of the entrepreneur is to define the mission, find and inspire the team, and lead.

The well-satisfied customer will bring the repeat sale that counts.

In the end, all business operations can be reduced to three words: people, product, and profits. Unless you’ve got a good team, you can’t do much with the other two.

I think a simple rule of business is, if you do the things that are easier first, then you can actually make a lot of progress.

Asking me to come work here is the dumbest idea you ever had. It has been a waste of a year.

You now have to decide what ‘image’ you want for your brand. Image means personality. Products, like people, have personalities, and they can make or break them in the market place.

A monopoly of jobs in this country is just as bad as a monopoly of bread!

The golden rule for every businessman is this: Put yourself in your customer’s place.

I did not feel ‘evil’ when I wrote advertisements for Puerto Rico. They helped attract industry and tourists to a country which had been living on the edge of starvation for 400 years.

Change is vital, improvement the logical form of change.

Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing.

The best way to make money in business is not to think too much about making 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.

Money will ruin the life of any man who treats it like anything but a tool with which to work.