Kenya’s M-Pesa proves that when people are empowered, they will use digital tech to innovate on their own behalf.

I never took a day off in my twenties. Not one. And I'm still fanatical, but now I'm a little less fanatical.

Great organizations demand a high level of commitment by the people involved.

I have always loved the competitive forces in this business. You know I certainly have meetings where I spur people on by saying, "Hey, we can do better than this. How come we are not out ahead on that?" Thats what keeps my job one of the most interesting in the world.

Windows is probably the most important product in the entire PC industry. Everything we do in terms of supporting touch, new hardware, accessibility has incredible impact.

Software will get to be somewhat more mature, ah, but it will never be as predictable as most areas of engineering.

We [US] are the biggest per person, by a substantial amount, greenhouse emitters, and we give the most foreign aid, not per person but in absolute. This is another issue where hopefully we will take a long-term approach which, even though we sometimes have a hard time doing that, it's easier for us, as a rich country with this kind of scientific depth, than it is for the poor countries who will suffer the problems.