Top 25 Clive Davis Quotes

I had no idea what awaited me when I took a job with CBS Records, and it was a total surprise to find I had a gift and an ear for music.

After my second marriage failed… I said, ‘You know, could I have a relationship with a man? A loving relationship with a man that would involve intimacy?’ For a while, before I did get into a relationship, I saw, for a few years, either women or men. And I found that I could be attracted to both.

I feel that contemporary music, with very few exceptions, is missing the voice. You see an award show, you see a hundred extras on set dancing and special effects, and you don’t see that solo voice that was the trademark of Adele. It’s no accident that it was her album that ended up selling 27 million copies worldwide.

You see the genius that Whitney Houston has as an interpreter of material, and you realize why genius can be applied to only a few interpretive performers. She finds meaning and depth and soulfulness in a song that often the writer and composer never really knew was there.

If an artist knows you have respect for their talent – which I have to feel to my core, to sign them – they know that you’re in their corner. That doesn’t mean you have to be ‘mum’ on everything; it doesn’t mean you can’t raise your voice.

The adage that you’re either gay or straight or you’re lying, well, that’s not true. Bisexuality does exist.

There’s no way that music could ever go down the tubes. I can’t imagine a civilization without music. When you realize today that music is such a part of people’s lives. And will always be, really.

There will come a time when very few will care about other people’s sexual preference – or preferences.

I would say, from an all-around point of view, Bruce Springsteen is one of the two great poet lords of America, Bob Dylan, coming out of the music world, the two of them.

In this age when people expect to get their music for free, we have to work out how we can protect the rights of creative artists so they are compensated fairly and that the record business itself remains sound and healthy.

I had no idea that I was ever getting into music. I did not prepare for a music career, and here I’ve found, out of pure luck, that I did have, not only a talent and an ear, but a passion for music. And I have it to this day.

I never paid attention when the LP became the cassette and the cassette became the CD and now we’re dealing, you know, with MP3s. It’s okay.

I play no instruments.

The purity of finding the right artist, that artist that’s gonna be the next hall of famer, that artist that’s gonna be the next headliner, lifting people out of their seats at Madison Square Garden, that song that’s gonna be sung for hundreds and hundreds of years, that essence remains the same.

I have total respect for the self-contained rock artist. Whether you’re dealing with Jerry Garcia or Lou Reed or Patti Smith or a Whitney or an Aretha, they know what they want with their career.

You don’t have favorites among your offspring, and you don’t among the artists you’re involved with, but clearly among my most favorite was Patti Smith.

To this day, there’s nobody, nobody that sounds like Janice Joplin.

My years with Aretha Franklin have been very special, as were the years making records with Dionne Warwick. Other highlights include working with Janis Joplin, who was the first artist I ever signed, as well as Patti Smith and Alicia Keys.

I feel blessed that I found not just a profession, but a 24/7 way of life that I purely love. That curiosity to be current, to listen to the Hozier album, to be early in recognition of a Lorde and spending time with her and Miguel, the pleasure of seeing new talent erupt… I love it.

I encourage the study of music. And the immersion. ‘Cause my life has been so enriched by being involved in music as I have.

The music began, and it was one of those life-changing moments. I saw an artist, Janis Joplin. She was exhilarating. She was vibrating. And she was like no other artist that I had ever seen before… It struck me that hard. Maybe the word is epiphany, when you get that special sensation.

My ‘act’ was schoolwork. I was your basic, garden-variety, ambitious, upwardly mobile, hard-working Jewish boy from Brooklyn. I was bound to go beyond my parents. It was simply the way things were.

I’m not into one-hit wonders.

I did not develop my ear. I discovered I had an ear, and it was an accident.

I’m the keeper of the flame for Whitney Houston. She was the greatest… and I don’t want the world to forget that.