I'd rather be respected than loved.
Without a doubt, stem cell research will lead to the dramatic improvement in the human condition and will benefit millions of people.
Civilizations are not remembered by their business people, their bankers or lawyers. They're remembered by the arts.
The best move you can make in negotiation is to think of an incentive the other person hasn't even thought of - and then meet it.
Someone once told me I'm a sore winner, and they're right. I rarely take more than a moment to enjoy a success before I'm moving on and looking for the next challenge.
The first thing I started collecting was stamps. Until I started discovering girls. That was the end of stamps.
How absurd that our students tuck their cell phones, BlackBerrys, iPads, and iPods into their backpacks when they enter a classroom and pull out a tattered textbook.
I believe in two things: One, Andrew Carnegie said, 'He who dies with wealth dies in shame.' And someone once said, 'He who gives while he lives also knows where it goes.'
Art evokes emotion. It doesn't have to be a thing of beauty.
Every artist is unreasonable, because he or she is doing something that hasn't been done before.
I've never been one who enjoys maintaining the status quo. I'm always pushing for new ideas, whether it's in business or philanthropy.
People don't know I've got a deep social conscience. I'm a child of the Depression, born in 1933. My parents were very liberal in their social views.
My family and I have been blessed with good fortune in the world of business. We've created quite a net worth. My children, two boys, have more money than they will ever need, and they aren't empire builders.
I can't think of another enterprise other than being a homeowner that can't have its debt restructured in bankruptcy. Corporations can but a homeowner can't? Now with securitization the homeowner can't go to the owner of the loan and work things out.
The American people frankly have been, over many, many years - to be blunt - fat, dumb and happy. If they want their children to compete with children in India, China or Korea, they better get them a far better education.
You can have great teachers, but if you don't have a good principal, you won't have a good school.
If you ask why I do what I do - I want to make a difference. I don't just want to maintain the status quo. I want to help people, to work with institutions or create ones when they don't exist.
The unions no longer control the education agenda of the Democratic Party.
I've become convinced that Los Angeles is going to become the next contemporary art capital - no other city has more contemporary gallery space than Los Angeles. We've come into our own, finally.
Collecting is more than just buying objects.
