The Internet is the easiest thing to get into. To be an Internet retailer, you just get that URL.

The flatter the corporate hierarchy, the more likely it is that employees will communicate bad news and act upon it.

In almost every area of human endeavor, the practice improves over time. That hasn't been the case for teaching.

At Microsoft there are lots of brilliant ideas but the image is that they all come from the top - I'm afraid that's not quite right.

We're creating this alliance, GAVI, that has helped buy the vaccines that were in the rich world but not getting to the poor kids, getting a very cheap price and figuring out the cold chain, getting the delivery right, and then funding research for new vaccines. A lot of them are coming along. We've got a meningitis vaccine out, got that through large parts of Africa. That has been a huge success.

I remember thinking quite logically that I didn't want to spoil my children with wealth and so that I would create a foundation, but not knowing exactly what it would focus on.

[We in Microsoft] are not the only software company but we are a great software company doing some unique work.