Simon Cowell Quotes

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

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

You sounded like someone who should be singing on a cruise ship. Halfway through your song, I wished the ship was sinking.

I don't mind competition at all. I mean, the record business is the most competitive business in the world, probably. So I'm used to that. In a weird way, it kind of makes you work harder.

I can't think of one person who is on TV who isn't vain. It's the nature of the beast. If you are on TV then you have a vanity, for sure. Just admit it! Why not?

They understand what their market is and who they should be selling records to, and most importantly, they know the kind of artist that they want to be, but they have to do it themselves. You don't want a 13-year-old singing some awful song from a musical.

Anything I shouldn't laugh at makes me laugh.

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

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

Holding auditions in front of an audience is testing.

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

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

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.

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

I have very good advice to give to kids this age, which is, you shouldn't listen to your mum or dad and you just have to work it out for yourself. And the reason I've taken the age range down this year, and I never would have done it 10 years ago, is what I've seen with the success of Willow Smith. You don't have to be so cutesy anymore.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

The only magazines I read are car magazines.

So I would only feel guilt if I misled somebody who was terrible.

The feelings that we equate with love-feeling sick, feeling insecure, not eating-that's just lust getting in the way. It's your ego saying, 'I want to get laid' and 'I hope she likes me more than I like her.' Love is something that should be there in 20 years' time.

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

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

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

It's not our intention to be mean. That's just within us.

Being different is good; embrace it.

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

It would hurt my feelings if I respected your opinions.

What I'm interested in watching is to make sure that they give the right advice now to the contestants who are going forward because, you know, it's one thing just to criticize but you've got to also give, you know, good advice which is going to help them. Overall, I think they're a good panel.

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.

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

Sincerity is romantic. I don't think you need gestures.

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.

Every single negative can lead to a positive. Any negative situation... don't get too down about it - you'll work it out. You learn it as you go along. You don't get smart at 17. You just don't unless you're one of a billion. it will happen over time and it's the getting there which will be the most fun.

We felt the time was right to open up the boundaries, and say to all of America, regardless of your age, whether you're 2, whether you're 100, regardless of what you believe your talent is - juggling, magic, singing - this is the show you can enter. It's as simple as that.

There's one argument that says we shouldn't be putting these kids on under the age of 16. I think you've got to take it case by case.

Well, it's basically the viewers who determine it. We - well, basically the producers and myself chose the people we felt had the best reaction, you know, through the press, the Internet, the people we thought deserved a second chance. And they've chosen a winner, I believe.

I actually don't understand a word Paula's saying anymore. It's like a new language.

Talking to celebrities is too much effort. They all think the same.

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

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

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.

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.