Simon Cowell Quotes

I don't have sophisticated tastes. I have average tastes. If you looked in my collection of DVDs, you'd see 'Jaws' and 'Star Wars.' In the book library, you'd see John Grisham and Sidney Sheldon. And if you look in my fridge, it's, like, children's food - chips, milkshakes, yogurt.

- Simon Cowell

If I said to most of the people who auditioned, 'Good job, awesome, well done,' it would have made me actually look and feel ridiculous. It's quite obvious most of the people who turned up for this audition were hopeless.

- Simon Cowell

I have total respect for anyone who discovers a band like Snow Patrol. I would be hopeless at signing a rock band, or anything alternative, cause I don't know what that audience are into and I don't particularly like that kind of music.

- Simon Cowell

I want people to understand that from the minute Lady Gaga arrived, she created a new set of rules: being different is good; embrace it.

- Simon Cowell

If you only ever heard Lady Gaga, she's the most boring singer in the world.

- Simon Cowell

You don't go into anything contemplating failure, because if you did, you wouldn't make it.

- Simon Cowell

As an actor, I really like Philip Seymour Hoffman. I think he's a genius.

- Simon Cowell

I'd say the most dangerous thing I've ever done is probably bungee jumping in Thailand.

- Simon Cowell

What I would argue in my defence is that shows like 'Britain's Got Talent' and 'The X Factor' have actually got people more interested in music again and are sending more people into record stores.

- Simon Cowell

I turned down many chances to be on TV before 'Pop Idol' because I really wasn't interested in being famous. I didn't need it and didn't want it.

- Simon Cowell

If I went to a psychiatrist, it would be a long session. I've always thought that I do have a number of issues that probably need dealing with, because I am quite odd in some ways.

- Simon Cowell

People confuse ego, lust, insecurity with true love.

- Simon Cowell

You know what the secret to weight loss is? Don't eat much.

- Simon Cowell

Choosing how you vote should not be a snap verdict based on a few minutes of television.

- Simon Cowell

I've had Botox, but then again pretty much everyone I know has. To me, Botox is no more unusual than toothpaste. It works. You do it once a year - who cares?

- Simon Cowell

I work out three or four times a week, I have Botox, take tons of vitamins and vitamin infusions - if you believe that these things work, you will feel better.

- Simon Cowell

I like to know why a video has suddenly gone viral, why a song has broken, why a TV show is suddenly rating out of pattern... I'm pretty good at understanding why things are becoming popular.

- Simon Cowell

My dad said to me, 'Work hard and be patient.' It was the best advice he ever gave me. You have to put the hours in.

- Simon Cowell

My own saying is: 'Create the hype, but don't ever believe it.'

- Simon Cowell

I like spaghetti bolognese, I like baked beans on toast. I hate French food. I hate fancy food.

- Simon Cowell

I suggest we bring some normality back to this country and say if you are carrying a knife, there must be zero tolerance. If it was up to me, everyone caught with a knife would get an automatic ten year sentence.

- Simon Cowell

When I was young and we got caught pinching apples, we got a smack from the local policeman. Today if that happened he would be sued. There is a tendency to punish the victim, not the criminal. If someone broke into my house or my mum's house, I worry that the burglar has more rights than me.

- Simon Cowell

When I think of invention, I always think of America. You're always seeing ads: 'Have you got the next big idea?' There seems to be that spirit in America of inventions and inventors.

- Simon Cowell

Everyone who turns up on 'X Factor' does it because a door has been closed to them at some time in their lives, and this is the only shot they have got.

- Simon Cowell

Anyone who goes on 'The X Factor' to make big money will be in for a big shock.

- Simon Cowell

If you've got a big mouth and you're controversial, you're going to get attention.

- Simon Cowell

When you're making a reality show, you can't even plan a week ahead now.

- Simon Cowell

There's no need for me to get married. I live with someone; we're happy; end of story.

- Simon Cowell

I love TV. I love being behind the scenes on a TV show but there's something about, I don't know there's something very special when you've signed an artist and that first record comes in and it's a good record. It is an indescribable feeling.

- Simon Cowell

If I go into a relationship with an artist, which at most is going to last five years, we have a 100-page contract covering every eventuality. Whereas with marriage you go into it with no contract, with laws that date back hundreds of years, and I don't think that's right.

- Simon Cowell

I don't like kids that are pushed into things by stage mums, but when I can see they are having a good time, they're excited and enjoying the process, then I think it's wrong to discriminate.

- Simon Cowell

I should get a dog. I would get a rescue dog. I like mutts; I don't care. I would probably get a three-legged dog no one else would want.

- Simon Cowell

Every time I sat in a chemistry lesson, I thought, 'What am I doing this for? I don't ever want to be in a job that involves a Bunsen burner.'

- Simon Cowell

The only people with power today are the audience. And that is increasing with Twitter, Facebook, and everything else. We cater to their likes and dislikes, and you ignore that at your peril.

- Simon Cowell

In TV, film, and music there's a lot of snobbery, and I don't like it. I've never been a cultural snob.

- Simon Cowell

I think America is a hard nut to crack. But once you get a toehold, it's a great place for an entrepreneur because people are so enthusiastic, and you have the most enthusiastic audiences in world.

- Simon Cowell

I don't want to tell a 15 or 14 year old what they should be doing. I want them to tell me. And that's what I got when I met Justin Bieber for the first time.

- Simon Cowell

I'm obsessed with cleanliness for myself, so I will take a bath three times a day, sometimes a steam twice a day in addition to that.

- Simon Cowell

I love producing shows. And so when you're on a show where other people are making decisions you don't necessarily agree with it, after a while you start to feel like a passenger.

- Simon Cowell

Shave off your beard and wear a dress. You would be a great female impersonator.

- Simon Cowell

I've never bought a Dylan record. A singing poet? It just bores me to tears. I've got to tell you, if I had 10 Dylans in the final of 'American Idol,' we would not be getting 30 million viewers a week. I don't believe the Bob Dylans of this world would make 'American Idol 'a better show.

- Simon Cowell

When you get your first pay cheque, it's the best feeling in the world.

- Simon Cowell

Whether they run a record company or a grocery store, every boss will tell you you're in big trouble if you're borrowing more than you can ever afford to pay back. Delaying the pain for future generations is suicidal. We've got to start getting the deficit down right now, not next year.

- Simon Cowell

I get very anti-social, depressed and irritable with people. I don't have time for them. I can't make phone calls and stuff. I just sit on my own for days.

- Simon Cowell

I could just sit back and get someone to spin my achievements, I suppose, but when I see others do it, I always think, 'Why are you telling me how successful you are?' I am always suspicious of those kinds of boasts.

- Simon Cowell

Thank God kids love following an artist. When you get a group who pop, it's the best thing in the world.

- Simon Cowell

When I look at it now, the whole punk thing is sort of comedy in a weird way.

- Simon Cowell

Anything I shouldn't laugh at makes me laugh. I mean, I'm bad at that, when somebody is singing something terribly and I'm thinking to myself, 'If I laugh now, this is the absolute worst thing I could ever do,' and then I start laughing and I can't stop.

- Simon Cowell

I was bought an electric guitar when I was 12, but my guitar teacher beat me up. I didn't like guitar lessons and I got quite bored. My teacher was obviously bored giving me lessons, and one day I offered him a liquorice toffee, but he didn't answer. So I threw it at him, it hit him in the face, and he sort of beat me up.

- Simon Cowell

We have hated the French for years. Now you have just joined the club. It makes you much more likable.

- Simon Cowell

I can't admit things; that's why I can't go to funerals and stuff like that. I find it very, very difficult to deal with that kind of reality. I shut myself off totally because it affects me so badly.

- Simon Cowell

My proudest achievement has been the success of the shows and artists I have been involved with, because they were made in Britain.

- Simon Cowell

You always want to go to a party where you get an invite.

- Simon Cowell

The minute you start assuming that the audience is very happy to see the same show again, you're dead.

- Simon Cowell

The end of the animal trade would leave more time to trap or beat to death pop star wannabes.

- Simon Cowell

I didn't have any qualifications when I left school - I had three O-levels.

- Simon Cowell

Every show I've ever, you know, produced, essentially it's the show I want to watch myself.

- Simon Cowell

I'm not that musical. I don't really know how a record is produced, and, funnily enough, I don't want to.

- Simon Cowell

The young people working for me are ambitious and hard-working. That work ethic has always been a trait of the British.

- Simon Cowell

I think if you're an unhappy person, you're always going to be an unhappy person. You're probably going to be less unhappy if your business is doing well, if I'm being honest.

- Simon Cowell

When someone asks, 'Does success make you into a monster?' I always say, 'No, it enables you to be a monster.'

- Simon Cowell

If we had to choose one American Idol to go out to dinner with, it would be Fantasia. There are no airs and graces about her... I like her.

- Simon Cowell

If I was gay, why wouldn't I admit it? It wouldn't harm me.

- Simon Cowell

For the music business, social networking is brilliant. Just when you think it's doom and gloom and you have to spend millions of pounds on marketing and this and that, you have this amazing thing now called fan power. The whole world is linked through a laptop. It's amazing. And it's free. I love it. It's absolutely brilliant.

- Simon Cowell

I've spent hundreds of thousands of pounds on the very best security and I can assure you my homes are as safe as the Bank of England.

- Simon Cowell

Money brings you security and choice. You can make decisions in a different way if you have a lot of money. But when you have nothing, you have a naivety, and a more fearless attitude because you have nothing to lose.

- Simon Cowell

The object of this competition is not to be mean to the losers but to find a winner. The process makes you mean because you get frustrated.

- Simon Cowell

I hate belongings. I hate clutter. It really bothers me because I can't think properly. If you've got distractions in front of you, your mind goes nuts.

- Simon Cowell

Holding auditions in front of an audience is testing.

- Simon Cowell

Have I got a black book? Yes, it's called a mobile phone. I do get offers. There is no shortage of people if you want to go on dates - working in TV, living in L.A., it is there if you want it.

- Simon Cowell

I grew up when the whole Motown thing was huge. The charts in those days were dominated by groups more than solo artists at one point.

- Simon Cowell

The love I have for my ex-girlfriends will always be there, so I think that's true love.

- Simon Cowell

I have always hated celebrities lecturing people on politics. So forgive me. But I am passionate about this country. I am equally passionate about the potential of the people who live here.

- Simon Cowell

I hated school, but I love work.

- Simon Cowell

I have always hated celebrities lecturing people on politics.

- Simon Cowell

I still put punctuation in my texts. If it's an 'I', I make sure it's a capital.

- Simon Cowell

There was nothing I could - and wanted to - learn in school. It was just a complete waste of my time.

- Simon Cowell

I'm not sure who has the right to say that you have better taste than somebody else, because essentially what you're doing is calling millions of people morons.

- Simon Cowell

I met someone the other night who's 28 years old, and he hasn't worked a day since he left college because he's pursuing a dream he'll never, ever realize: He thinks he's a great singer. Actually, he's crap.

- Simon Cowell

I think of stress as the creator of cancer and heart attacks, like a tiny little ball you feed. I believe that one of the reasons I've never got ill is that I'm not stressed.

- Simon Cowell

Would I like kids? If I knew I could be - and how could I put this delicately - faithful, then yes. I do like kids.

- Simon Cowell

I don't mind being cast as some kind of a pantomime baddie, but I am very fair in business. I always have been. I pride myself on being fair.

- Simon Cowell

The secret of my success is that I make other people money. And, never ever, ever, ever be ashamed about trying to earn as much as possible for yourself, if the person you're working with is also making money. That's life!

- Simon Cowell

Of course I have an ego, but you have to have an ego. You have to be incredibly competitive. I can get competitive at times, way too much, and it becomes a little bit obsessive.

- Simon Cowell

It's not my habit to kiss and tell. I've never done it.

- Simon Cowell

If your lifeguard duties were as good as your singing, a lot of people would be drowning.

- Simon Cowell

I probably get more satisfaction from making a show than being on a show.

- Simon Cowell

You are a saucy little thing aren't you?

- Simon Cowell

I think you have to judge everything based on your personal taste. And if that means being critical, so be it. I hate political correctness. I absolutely loathe it.

- Simon Cowell

Most things in music go full circle eventually.

- Simon Cowell

No one really has any job security anymore, including myself.

- Simon Cowell

I don't think I can do this anymore.

- Simon Cowell

Britain's got talent, enormous talent; that's very obvious.

- Simon Cowell

It's the government's job to encourage entrepreneurialism and investment. Most importantly, it's the government's duty to inspire confidence.

- Simon Cowell

I was never given any hand-outs. I started at the bottom and was very good at finding people who knew more than me and learning from them.

- Simon Cowell

I do a couple of hundred press-ups a day but I haven't been to a gym in years.

- Simon Cowell

The only magazines I read are car magazines.

- Simon Cowell

My attitude is, if someone's going to criticize me, tell me to my face.

- Simon Cowell

I couldn't think of anything worse than being in an unhappy marriage. It worries me because I've seen it destroy people.

- Simon Cowell

I am quite miserable because I'm never satisfied with what I've got. You're always looking for that next high, and that is what I would define as happiness.

- Simon Cowell

At 20, you're cocky and you think you can rule the world, and you get it all wrong.

- Simon Cowell

I've always been petrified of working for a boss who I didn't like but who I was in fear of, because I wanted my salary.

- Simon Cowell

If I had one dog, I'd want a hundred. If I had one kid, I'd probably want a hundred. I mean, it's just the way I am.

- Simon Cowell

I was 12 years old when I first realized that food could be hot. That's why I turned out the way I am.

- Simon Cowell

Rules equal boredom, and I don't like that.

- Simon Cowell

I think that by ignoring the show you're ignoring the audience who put you there.

- Simon Cowell

I've always treated the music business as a business.

- Simon Cowell

I'm going to give all my money away, eventually. I don't believe in all this hand-down stuff. Even if I had kids, I don't think I'd want to give them everything.

- Simon Cowell

I break up very well. I am a good breaker-upper.

- Simon Cowell

I got good advice once. Someone said to me: 'Live in your money rather than look at it.'

- Simon Cowell

Sometimes when you have a record out, you think you're going to go in at No. 1 but you go in at No. 8. So your second record has to be better. That's how I treat it.

- Simon Cowell

Not everybody is perfect, and I don't think we should be looking for perfect people.

- Simon Cowell