Roman Abramovich

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

[on money] It cannot buy you happiness. Some independence, yes.

I love this game, I love this sport, I love this league. Why don’t I get my own team?

Our strategy [at Chelsea] is to bring up our own players through the academy, which we have invested a lot in, and hope it gives results.

I never insisted that I was a good student.

I have no Napoleonic dream. I’m just hard-working and pragmatic.

I do not regard advertising as entertainment or an art form, but as a medium of information.

An imitation may be quite successful in its own way, but imitation can never be Success. Success is a first-hand creation.

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

The thought in my mind was that I must be a good merchant. If I were a good merchant, the rest would probably take care of itself.

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

Too many would-be executives are slaves of routine.

Advertising is a business of words, but advertising agencies are infested with men and women who cannot write. They cannot write advertisements, and they cannot write plans. They are helpless as deaf mutes on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera.

My motto is: Always get even. When somebody screws you, screw them back in spades.

The highest use of capital is not to make more money, but to make money do more for the betterment of life.

Rule No. 1: Never lose money. Rule No. 2: Never forget Rule No.1.

[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.

Salesmanship is limitless. Our very living is selling. We are all salespeople.

We were all young and we were all inventing our careers. I was very close to Jackson, just as I’d been very close to Laura Nyro. With each person I had a unique relationship.

Profits made out of the distress of the people are always much smaller than profits made out of the most lavish service of the people at the lowest prices that competent management can make possible.

No one loses anything by raising wages as soon as he is able. It has always paid us. Low wages are the most costly any employer can pay. It is like using low-grade material–the waste makes it very expensive in the end. There is no economy in cheap labor or cheap material. The hardest thing I ever had to do was to reduce wages. I think we were the last big company to come to it. Now I am mighty glad that wages are climbing again.