People work better when they know what the goal is and why. It is important that people look forward to coming to work in the morning and enjoy working.

The odds of me coming into the rocket business, not knowing anything about rockets, not having ever built anything, I mean, I would have to be insane if I thought the odds were in my favor.

There's nothing - I've bought everything I want. I don't like yachts or anything; you know, I'm not a yacht person, and I've got pretty much the nicest plane I'd want to have.

Weighing too much on someone's talent and not someone's personality. I think it matters whether someone has a good heart.

Many things are improbable, only a few are impossible.

One bit of advice: it is important to view knowledge as sort of a semantic tree - make sure you understand the fundamental principles, ie the trunk and big branches, before you get into the leaves/details or there is nothing for them to hang on to.

America is the spirit of human exploration distilled.