Congo

by Michael Crichton

His management philosophy, tempered in his rain-dancing days, was always to give the project to whoever had the most to gain from success—or the most to lose from failure.

It’s hard to decide who’s truly brilliant; it’s easier to see who’s driven, which in the long run may be more important.

“If a man has to do something dangerous,” he said later, “it helps to be angry. It’s for his own protection, really. Better he should hate someone than fall apart. I wanted Elliot to hate me all the way down.”