Mel Brooks

Brooks talks about being a writer for the movie The Producers:

When I was about 17, I worked for a guy—I won’t mention his name, because he has children and grandchildren—who used to make love to little old ladies on a cracked leather couch. He lived in his office, which was against the rules of the building. I was kind of his intern, because he never paid me much, but it was a thrill. I thought I was in show business! Anyway, he did what the characters in The Producers did on a very petty level. He’d raise maybe $1,000 more than he needed to put his production on, and then he lived on that money.