My biggest concern is that America is drifting towards mediocrity and that people don't recognize - and by people I'm meaning Washington - don't recognize the sense of urgency and the fact that I don't think this is a crisis anymore. I think it's an emergency.

Grow with discipline. Balance intuition with rigor. Innovate around the core. Don't embrace the status quo.

I never took classic business classes in college, so I don't have the background that any of the people running large companies have.

The growth of the company and the license that Starbucks has is to participate in other food and beverage opportunities. We have a global business... and in many parts of the world, tea is much, much bigger than coffee, and we're going to bring tea and bring our capability and our understanding of what we've done for coffee to tea.

I think if you're an entrepreneur, you've got to dream big - and then dream bigger.

The companies that are lasting are those that are authentic.

Victory is much more meaningful when it comes not just from one person, but from the joint achievements of many.