Clive Davis Quotes

100 Clive Davis Quotes

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To me family is so important…
Clive Davis

[His family] We go on vacation together two or three times a year.
Clive Davis

I became general counsel within a year and I plunged into the business learning…
Clive Davis

[On being at the shows he did the contracts for] With no career objectives. Just to do the best job possible at what I was doing.
Clive Davis

It was luck… I will pay you $75,000 and I was making $25,000.
Clive Davis

[On not being focused on any one type of music but being a generalist] I never specialised at Columbia records.
Clive Davis

When I started Arista having coming from that diversity of that background… I didn’t specialise in any one thing.
Clive Davis

I got into urban black R&D music.
Clive Davis

The primary difference, what I had not done at Columbia – what I did at Arista, outside of the rock and the progressive, and the black was really to hone my ears, for hit songs. And to look for entertainers who don’t write hit songs, or if they do write they don’t write in the quantity necessary to propel a major career.
Clive Davis

The words a&r stand for artist and repertoire.



The genius of Whitney Houston, the genius of Aretha Franklin, is that they can take today’s professional song writers… today’s songs that people will remember… it’s sort of a balance…
Clive Davis

[On Barry Manilow albums having to add songs to each album] He gave me two songs on each album. And for those two songs I had to make the most of.
Clive Davis

Barry [Manilow] lead to Dion and Dion lead to Aretha [Franklin], Aretha lead to Whitney [Houston].
Clive Davis

You learn that life does not go up, up. You learn that outside events can affect you and you’ve got to learn that with right on your side hopefully - it may not… in my case it came out well.
Clive Davis

[On adversity] The trauma that you’ve got to go through, it toughens you. It’s part of life. You don’t get victimized by it.
Clive Davis

[On the first record put out by Arista after the change from Columbia Records] It worked out great when the first record go straight to number one.
Clive Davis

[On J Records] When we started the company, it was not a new company. Every position without exception was staffed with my key people at Arista. It was unheard of.
Clive Davis

I work 12-15 hours a day…
Clive Davis

You learn to rise above challenge.
Clive Davis

I’ve learned that you’ve got to individually control your life…
Clive Davis



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