Eli Broad Quotations

Most museums - with all their burdens to pay for exhibitions, administration, and security - really don't have any money really to acquire art, with few exceptions.

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.

To me, unconventional thinking is approaching a problem and asking, 'Why not? Why can't something be done?' If someone can't give me a good reason why you can't do something, I find a way to do it.

Civilizations are not remembered by their business people, their bankers or lawyers. They're remembered by the arts.

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.

Frankly, I'm not sure how far I would get if I attended public school today. It's not just that public schools aren't producing the results we want - it's that we're not giving them what they need to help students achieve at high levels. K-12 education in the United States is deeply antiquated.

The inability to delegate is one of the biggest problems I see with managers at all levels.

I'm strong-willed. Architects are strong-willed. You get the best results with a strong client and a strong architect working together.

You can have great teachers, but if you don't have a good principal, you won't have a good school.

Charity is just writing checks and not being engaged. Philanthropy, to me, is being engaged, not only with your resources but getting people and yourself really involved and doing things that haven't been done before.

Without a doubt, stem cell research will lead to the dramatic improvement in the human condition and will benefit millions of people.

The happiest people I've found are in science. These people have three times the IQ - maybe I'm exaggerating. They have a higher IQ than I do. They love what they're doing, they have a good family life, they're satisfied.

Museums do not share their collections with other museums unless they get something in exchange. The Metropolitan will deal with the Louvre, but will they send their stuff to Memphis? No.

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.

Managers are responsible for setting workplace policies under which teachers can succeed. Managers are responsible for negotiating contracts that create the conditions under which teachers can succeed.

I am old enough to remember when America's K-12 public schools were the best in the world. I am a proud graduate of them, and I credit much of my success to what I learned in Detroit Public Schools and at Michigan State University.

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.

Anything I do, I spend a lot of time. I do it with passion and intensity. I want to be in charge.

Artists rarely do the same thing over and over again. Art is about the new, doing things in a new way.

Every artist is unreasonable, because he or she is doing something that hasn't been done before.

Unfortunately, the boards of art institutions tend to be populated with well-meaning supporters of the arts who often lack any business background or appetite for imposing appropriate discipline.

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.

A lot of executives act like their time is worth more than anyone else's. But I always respect an employee who guards his or her time, even from me.

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.

I never stay anywhere - parties, museums, meetings - longer than three hours.

I believe that a newspaper is a great civic asset and that ownership is best in the hands of foundations or wealthy families that want to own it for reasons other than maximizing profits. I also believe newspapers should remain in local hands.

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.

If you have poor management that's not doing the right job, you end up with unions filling the void and... page after page of work rules and thicker and thicker contracts.

My wife was the first art collector in the family, and I didn't become interested until around 1973. The first important artwork we bought was a Van Gogh drawing of two peasant houses in Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer.

Oprah Winfrey's global influence is unparalleled. Not only has her generosity and firm belief that education is the key to a better life benefited countless women and children around the world, but her example has also inspired millions of people to give back in ways big and small.

I have always believed that every great city in history needs a vibrant center.

I don't think it makes any sense for an individual to invest in common stocks unless they know the company, work at the company, and so on.

I never play golf because it takes too long, and the business connections it produces can be made just as easily over an early breakfast.

A real collector does not sell.

Any city in America would like to get a museum built if they didn't have to pay for it.

Art evokes emotion. It doesn't have to be a thing of beauty.

Collecting is more than just buying objects.

I don't see myself as a great discoverer of artists, like Charles Saatchi.

School boards are, for the most part ,made up of political wannabes who see a board seat as a stepping stone for political office, or well-meaning parents who represent an ethnic group or geography, or have some other narrow interests. Few people on them understand what governance is about.

The biggest barrier we've seen to student progress is this: School policies and practices often prevent good teachers from doing great work and even dissuade some talented Americans from entering the profession. This needs to change.

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.’

Collectors become obsessive and then addicted. You become addicted to art and you can't live without it.

You always learn lessons in business.

I don't want to be in the film business. I'm not even sure it's a business.

I'd be bored to death if I spent all my time with other businesspeople, bankers and lawyers.

No one ever made a million bucks by being cautious or timid or reasonable.

I'd rather be respected than loved.

Time is the most valuable thing you have - and I'm not just talking about the minutes for which you're paid.

I learned to embrace risk, as long as it was well thought out and, in a worst-case scenario, I'd still land on my feet.

People always say congratulations. When you're a successful bidder it means you're willing to spend more money than anyone else. I'm not sure if that's congratulations or condolences.

Public education is the key civil rights issue of the 21st century. Our nation's knowledge-based economy demands that we provide young people from all backgrounds and circumstances with the education and skills necessary to become knowledge workers. If we don't, we run the risk of creating an even larger gap between the middle class and the poor. This gap threatens our democracy, our society and the economic future of America.

I can imagine no more important contribution to our country's future than a long-term commitment to improving urban K-12 public schools.

I am not a patient person. My friends and colleagues will confirm this. But, frankly, we should all feel a little more impatient with the state of public education in America today.

I don't think the market can keep going up. In the U.S., we see real estate not going up.. houses are selling at lower prices. You can't have anything going up 10 percent to 20 percent to 30 percent indefinitely.

Ideas, more than money, are really the currency for success.

In high school, I would drive my teachers batty. They would make a statement, and I would say, 'Why is that?' They didn't want to be questioned.

I think over any period of time, especially if you don't use leverage, it is difficult to continually beat the S&P 500.

If people want to criticize me because it sells papers, that's fine. I just don't like it when it's inaccurate.

At a time when all the other builders were selling homes with basements but without carports, we would sell homes without basements and with carports. This allowed us to provide a more appealing product at a lower price. In other words, we felt we would be giving customers greater value.

There were periods when the art market got overheated, but there is no reason it should appreciate dramatically.

The first thing I started collecting was stamps. Until I started discovering girls. That was the end of stamps.

The first dream I had was just to get a college education. I got through college in three years, taking extra classes in summer school.

School district policies and practices have not kept pace with student and teacher needs.

Philanthropy is activism.

Who you spend your life with-much more so than how you choose to spend it-is the most important decision you can make. Do it right. That's the best advice I can give you.

For businesses to be successful, they need to constantly ask the question: how can we provide value to our customers? At the end of the day, that is what matters.

If someone can't give me a good reason why you can't do something, I find a way to do it.

Research – and using what you learn from it to analyze every situation – is what separates being unreasonable from being irrational.

While I am proud of a number of accomplishments, there are real costs to being unreasonable. Long hours. Too little time with family. A near incapacity for, as they say, stopping and smelling the roses.

There is no substitute for knowledge. To this day, I read three newspapers a day. It is impossible to read a paper without being exposed to ideas. And ideas - more than money - are the real currency for success.

To me, money is a means to do good. I reached a point in my life where I had enjoyed tremendous business success that afforded my family everything we could possibly want. My wife and I then decided that we could use our wealth to make a difference. So we created the Broad Foundations to do four things: to improve urban public education, to support innovative scientific and medical research, to foster art appreciation for audiences worldwide and to support civic initiatives in Los Angeles.

Contemporary art challenges us.. it broadens our horizons. It asks us to think beyond the limits of conventional wisdom.

Los Angeles is such a great meritocracy. Where can someone with my background - don't have the right family background, the right religion, the right provenance or whatever you want to call it - I come here and I'm accepted. The city's been good to me. And I want to give back.

Los Angeles is one of the four cultural capitals of the world, but we don't attract as many cultural tourists as New York, London or Paris. I want to change that.

several million dollars when all is said and done.

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.

Peter could look around corners. He would say things that seemed rather simple but in fact were very profound. He saw the future.

People would rather have art or gold instead of paper money.

He drew me in. David has the ability to understand where the world of science and medicine is going, and he can relate that in lay terms.

He learned supermarkets not from Wall Street but from starting as a bag boy.

I think the opera is one of the great cultural jewels of Los Angeles.

Stem cell research is one of the greatest opportunities to improve the human condition. California will be America's leader in stem cell research, which will not only benefit the tremendous need of people suffering from debilitating diseases and conditions, but will also help the California economy immeasurably.

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.

We became convinced that the combination of the brightest minds in science and medicine, coupled with world-class facilities and cutting-edge technology, holds the potential to unlock the mysteries of disease.

This will hopefully be the anchor of a new biomedical corridor in the region, where the nation's most cutting-edge research is conducted by some of the brightest minds in science.

Twombly, frankly, was an acquired taste. I was not in love with Twombly the first time I saw one of his paintings.

What artists think about the world is often different from how we businessmen see it, and I find that an enriching experience.

As the son of a union activist and a lifelong Democrat, I've always thought that privatizing our public schools is not the answer. We must strengthen public schools.

The world has changed dramatically, with globalization and free trade, moving from an industrial economy to an information economy, ... But while that's been happening, K-12 education hasn't changed at all. Meanwhile, China's graduating five times as many engineers as we are, and you look at India and you get alarmed.

The strength of our nation depends on the strength of our schools, especially those in large urban districts that serve so many of our children. Broad Prize finalist districts are doing what some say is impossible -- improving students' performance, regardless of their race or family income -- while at the same time closing persistent achievement gaps. Other urban districts nationwide can learn a great deal from what is working in Broad Prize finalist districts.

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.

Teach For America provides one of the most critical pipelines for bringing new talent into public education.

San Francisco Unified School District is to be commended for the progress it has made in improving student achievement despite urban challenges. San Francisco outperformed similar districts in California in the areas of elementary, middle and high school reading and math.

School boards are, for the most part,made up of political wannabes who see a board seat as a stepping stone for political office, or well-meaning parents who represent an ethnic group or geography, or have some other narrow interests. Few people on them understand what governance is about.

People think it's strange how briskly I move through museums. Sure, I could stand in front of each piece and stare at it for a good long time. But that's not me.

Norfolk's success can be attributed to the district's strong leadership, and the solid partnership with the school board, unions and community. It is clear that they have made education a priority for all students.

You don't support politicians in their elections if whoever's seeking money only has a goal to stay in office or get in office. You have to pick the people who are going to do the best job.

It is our hope that the Broad Institute will really be the anchor of a new biomedical corridor in Southern California. Despite the fact that we have great universities, great medical schools, we have not built integrated research space that will encourage expansion of the biotech industry.

For businesses to be successful, they need to constantly ask the question: 'How can we provide value to our customers?' At the end of the day, that is what matters.

It's hard to explain your emotions when you see a work of art.