David Geffen

"She simply said, “Yes, I did.” The next day was a Saturday, and we were at the pool with some friends. What happened then between us was an explosion of pent-up demand, and we ran to the guesthouse. David Geffen, who had been one of those at the pool, walked in on us. I caught a glimpse of David’s more-than-astonished face as he quickly closed the door."

"Then, one Christmas holiday, into the mail room walked David Geffen, a scrawny nineteen-year-old who looked more like a malnourished twelve. He introduced himself, saying he worked in the New York office, but wanted to use the holiday to find out what the L.A. office was like. I thought, *Whoa, now that’s ambition.* I could actually feel the hunger for success vibrating out of him. I’d never met, then or since, someone with more focus, more pure drive and ferocious intelligence than David. Unlike me, who loves process, David is the most efficient problem solver ever born. No artificial intelligence will ever exceed his ability to go faster from problem to solution, or from poverty to so many billions. Despite all the biological aggression and occasional occupational conflict that has bubbled between us at various times over sixty years of knowing each other, I treasure him now as my best friend."

"I then had the displeasure of going into a jail cell, for the first and last time (one hopes). We were shooting Clint Eastwood’s *Escape from Alcatraz,* one of the rare times Eastwood strayed from his home studio, Warner Brothers. My friend David Geffen was briefly head of production, and when he’d seen Eastwood’s latest rough cut, he thought, *Well, I’m a movie executive and we’re supposed to give notes*. So he very reasonably called Clint up and said, “I have some notes.” And Clint said to him, “Notes? Fine—you can give them to me while I’m packing.” That’s how we got Clint’s next film. I went on location to Alcatraz Island to watch a day’s filming. Eastwood told me I should experience a few minutes inside a solitary-confinement cell. That was one of the longest conversations we had. The total number of words exchanged between us from the start of production to the release of the movie was probably between thirty-six and fifty-two. It was a perfectly proper but distant and cold experience. I called Clint after the movie was successfully released and said, “That was just great. What can we do next?” There was a long pause. I guess I had deluded myself into thinking that we had built a relationship. Clint said, “I’ll let you know.” He returned to Warner. I never heard from him, and that was that for the next forty years."