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

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

— 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

It was like ordering a hamburger and getting only the buns"(After Brooke White of season 7 on American Idol sang the song 'Hero'by Mariah Carey)

— 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

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 licorice 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

Money brings you security and choice. You can make decisions differently 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

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

— Simon Cowell