Wit & Attitude Quote by David Geffen

Hollywood, in Geffen's telling, isn't a dream factory so much as a country club with better lighting: deception in the morning, doubles in the afternoon. The line works because it collapses two worlds that are usually kept separate. "Lie" and "cheat" signal hardball power; "then go and play tennis" supplies the punchline, a postcard of leisure that makes the ruthlessness feel not just immoral but banal. It's not that everyone is vicious. It's that they can be vicious and still keep their calendar clear for recreation. That casualness is the indictment.

Geffen's intent is less moral outrage than boundary-setting. "I don't want to be a tennis player" is a refusal to join the social choreography that smooths over betrayal with polite rituals. Tennis stands in for a whole ecosystem of networking-as-sport: meetings disguised as hangouts, alliances maintained through shared hobbies, conflict dissolved into small talk. He isn't rejecting ambition; he's rejecting the performance of friendliness that lets exploitation feel consequence-free.

The context matters because Geffen came up as a dealmaker in an industry where relationships are currency and narratives are weapons. Hollywood's real product is not film; it's access. By mocking the post-swindle tennis match, he exposes how status insulates people from accountability. The subtext is a warning and a self-description: he will play the game of business, but he won't pretend it's a game.