When I Stop Talking, You’ll Know I’m Dead is the autobiography of the late Jerry Weintraub. The story of this legendary promoter, agent, and producer should be devoured. Weintraub comes across like your grandfather’s best friend from high school that you can’t believe came back to town to visit and tell his incredible stories. In the end, you wish you had been with Weintraub through all of it, Haggling with Sinatra, on the road with Elvis, and playing practical jokes with George Clooney, Matt Damon, and Brad Pitt. After reading, you feel like you nearly were. Hats off to Rich Cohen.

One of my favorite quotes:

If there’s one piece of advice I can give to young people, to kids trying to break out of Brooklyn and Kankakee, it’s this: persist, push, hang on, keep going, never give up. When the man says no, pretend you can’t hear him. Look confused, stammer, say, “Huh?” Persistence—it’s a cliché, but it happens to work. The person who makes it is the person who keeps on going after everyone else has quit. This is more important than intelligence, pedigree, even connections. Be dogged! Keep hitting that door until you bust it down! I have accomplished almost nothing on the first or second or even the third try—the breakthrough usually comes late, when everyone else has left the field.

Buy this book.