Breakthroughs, in art, in culture, in personality, come when tackling the unexpected.

To whom one reports is a unit of measure. It measures the exact distance between the player and the center of power. It is the closest we can get to a calibrated answer to the question 'How big am I?' More than the size of an executive's office or even his title, which no one remembers anyway, the fewer people between the player and a 'yes,' the more powerful he is.

Like the color black, business mixed with anything turns to business.

When I was starting out, the first women studio heads and writers were just getting into their perches - development execs learning their chops.

What turns a work crisis into a life crisis is the infusion of dread.

Love and friendship, two of life's abiding rewards, are endangered species in Hollywood. People crave both, mistaking alliance for friendship, lust for love, and ambition for both.

Everything can be undone, including success.