I think there are too many smart people pursuing internet stuff, finance, and law. That is part of the reason why we haven't seen as much innovation.

I always invest my own money in the companies that I create. I don't believe in the whole thing of just using other people's money. I don't think that's right. I'm not going to ask other people to invest in something if I'm not prepared to do so myself.

Well, my motivation behind Tesla is really to do as much good as possible for the environment and the electric-vehicle revolution. I think there is still a lot of work to do and if we were to sell to a big company, I'm not sure it would progress at the same pace.

People will buy the car just because it's a great car. We want them to think it's excellent value for money and then, oh yeah, it happens to be electric.

I tend to approach things from a physics framework. And physics teaches you to reason from first principles rather than by analogy.

Facebook is quite entrenched and has a network effect. It's hard to break into a network once it's formed.

Starting and growing a business is as much about the innovation, drive and determination of the people who do it as it is about the product they sell.