For some odd reason, I had an early and extreme multidisciplinary cast of mind. I couldn't stand reaching for a small idea in my own discipline when there was a big idea right over the fence in somebody else's discipline. So I just grabbed in all directions for the big ideas that would really work.

Over the very long term, history shows that the chances of any business surviving in a manner agreeable to a company's owners are slim at best.

The first chance you have to avoid a loss from a foolish loan is by refusing to make it; there is no second chance.

I think track records are very important. If you start early trying to have a perfect one in some simple thing like honesty, you're well on your way to success in this world.

This is a good life lesson: getting the right people into your system is the most important thing you can do.

All I want to know is where I’m going to die, so I’ll never go there

It is way less certain to be a wonderful business in the future. The threat is alternative mediums of information. Every newspaper is scrambling to parlay their existing advantage into dominance on the Internet. But it is way less sure [that this will occur] than the certainty 20 years ago that the basic business would grow steadily, so there's more downside risk. The perfectly fabulous economics of this business could become grievously impaired.