Nicolas Berggruen's Quotes

Singapore has been incredibly well-managed. It was created out of the swamp, with a strong emotional idea: a safe place for mostly Chinese, but accepting other cultures and other races.

The biggest determinant in our lives is culture, where we are born, what the environment looks like. But the second biggest determinant is probably governance, good governance or a certain kind of governance makes a huge difference in our lives.

Think of everything in Seattle - Microsoft, Amazon, Starbucks. Then you go down to Silicon Valley - Intel, Apple, Google, Facebook, Twitter. What does New York produce?

Whatever I own is temporary, since we're only here for a short period of time. It's what we do and produce, it's our actions that will last forever. That's real value.

At the end, the key thing is you've got to live with yourself. That's the real test. Everything else is fleeting.

Brunch is boring, but that's part of the charm of it.

Everything I do now is about growing the pot to have more to give away.

I can drive. Let's just say you don't want to be in the passenger seat.

I don't get that much enjoyment out of saying 'I own it.'

I don't have a house, and I don't have a lot of time for socializing, so every year I have a party for all of my friends.

I felt I was owned by possessions.

I wish I was a great writer or a great journalist or a great scientist or a great artist; I'm not.

If you erased New York, I hate to say it, if you erased Frankfurt, even London, the world would not have changed.

If you have things and if you are a perfectionist, which I am, you have to really tend to them, and it takes energy away from other things.

Luckily the whole world is not like me, or else, there would be no world.

Possessing things is not that interesting. Living in a grand environment to show myself and others that I have wealth has zero appeal.

This is a bit like big-game hunting. You look for companies of a certain size that deserve to be public.

California has something which not every place in the world has: It has what I would call a sunny side, and I don't mean just physically, but the sunny side is a future. California's worth saving, to put it bluntly.

California is a place of invention, a place of courage, a place of vision, a place of the future. People who made California what it is were willing to take risks, think outside convention and build.

Commodity exchanges have a lot of advantages. One, you are helping transparency. Two, they are not political. It's institutional building. It can survive any environment, in theory.

I am not that attached to material things. And the good thing is I can make choices. I have very few possessions. Luckily, as a man you don't need much... a few papers, a couple of books, and a few shirts, jackets, sweaters. It fits in a little thing, in a paper bag, so it's very easy.

I don't mind staying in one place for a while - I like to spend a lot of time in Los Angeles. It's a place where nobody goes out, where people will leave you alone. People in Los Angeles love themselves and they love what they do and they leave you alone. If you're isolated, you have a real advantage. You can work.

I tend to end relationships, so she can find somebody better than me. Because I want to be fair to people. I cannot devote enough energy and time and devotion to her. I think that is fair, no?