DreamWorks

"Jeffrey was like a hummingbird. Compact and wiry with the work intensity of a beaver on speed, he started as my assistant, hired because I thought he was sparky and enthusiastic. He was the super-assistant of all time—he furnished our house in the Dominican Republic in three days, he got me diamonds for Diane’s birthday, he ran New Year’s Eve parties for me—whatever he did, he did with gale-force intensity. He was also irritating in his zealotry to run interference for someone who liked interfering—me. I had to get him out of my office just to keep peace with all the executives who resented his ambition, so I put him in the marketing department, hoping it would round off his roughest edges. Soon we moved him out to the studio in L.A. to get some production experience, which he sure did, eventually running Disney’s movie operation, founding DreamWorks, and becoming the most ferocious political fundraiser of the age."