David Geffen

I came in early every day for six months till I intercepted the letter from UCLA saying they’d never heard of me. I replaced it with a letter that said I’d graduated.

[On school] Not only did I know that I wasn’t one of the smart kids in the class, but so did everyone else.

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

I comfortable with everything – say whatever you want.

I just needed a job. Before being hired as an usher at the CBS Theater, I didn’t even know there was a show business.

I must have had a dozen jobs and I got fired from all of them.

I’ve always been fascinated by activists, people who will devote their life to a cause, people who go to India and to Africa and put their life in jeopardy to do what they believe is right.

Everyone’s got their own reason. Some believe it’s because I spent some of my childhood in the far north that I helped Chukotka, some believe it’s because I had a difficult childhood that I helped Chukotka, some believe it’s because I stole money that I helped Chukotka. None of these is real. When you come out and you see a situation and there are 50,000 people, you want to do something. I haven’t seen anything worse than what I saw there in my life.

But charity is a very complicated thing. It’s important to find an area where you can really help and you can feel the results. Charity is not like feeding pigeons in the square. It is a process that requires professional management.