Warners

"I read it in an hour, and of course I loved it beyond love. I said, “We’ll do it!” He and I made the deal on the phone in five minutes, but I thought, *It’s never going to happen; he’ll go back to Warners because it isn’t officially in “turnaround,”* meaning the studio hadn’t legally let it go. I was fairly certain Warren would never accept a formal, signed piece of paper that said he and his film were being rejected."

"The eruption took place in my car on our way to Warners to see its leaders, Bob Daly and Terry Semel. Rupert had the incredibly gutsy idea of starting a satellite service in Britain to compete with the already announced and funded government one. Hollywood movies were going to be the backbone of both services, and I was helping him buy movies—you never completely put your old job behind you!—for the new channel. We were on our way to shake hands on the deal we’d negotiated."

"At the time, there was no such thing as “media.” Movie studios dominated entertainment, and the five majors (Paramount/Warners/Columbia/Fox/Universal) had worldwide importance. If you ran one of these film companies, you were a prominent figure wherever you went. In those early years, though, I wasn’t swanning anywhere; I was just trying to figure out this weird and dysfunctional studio I was now in charge of. Because I’d offed Yablans in such a public and brutal way, everyone was now afraid of me. And I was petrified that they would find out just how unqualified I actually was. Only if I slowed everything down could I begin to understand all the parts and then try to rearrange them into something coherent. I tend to make things worse in the beginning as I fumble around trying to get to base truths. Instinct, which I prize almost above all else, doesn’t work very well for me in abstruse matters. I have to get to the core DNA on any matter, its logical essence, before I can add anything of value. For me this takes a lot of time, often to the irritation of faster thinkers. But when it does crystallize, I can’t be deterred."