I’d rather interview 50 people and not hire anyone than hire the wrong person.

What we want to be is something completely new. There is no physical analog for what Amazon.com is becoming.

Cultures, for better or worse, are very stable.

And I still buy books at B&N, Borders and Elliot Bay ... I probably shouldn't admit this. But I don't care. I love great bookstores.

You don't chose your passion, your passion choses you

The framework I found which made the decision incredibly easy was what I called — which only a nerd would call — a “regret minimization framework.” So, I wanted to project myself forward to age 80 and say, “Okay, now I’m looking back on my life. I want to have minimized the number of regrets I have.”

Failure comes part and parcel with invention. It’s not optional.