I'm skeptical that the novel will be "re­invented." If you start thinking about a medical textbook or something, then, yes, I think that's ripe for reinvention. You can imagine animations of a beating heart. But I think the novel will thrive in its current form. That doesn't mean that there won't be new narrative inventions as well. But I don't think they'll displace the novel.

You cannot make a business case that you should be who you are not

Amazon.com strives to be the e-commerce destination where consumers can find and discover anything they want to buy online.

The most important single thing is to focus obsessively on the customer. Our goal is to be earth's most customer-centric company.

Percentage margins don't matter. What matters always is dollar margins: the actual dollar amount. Companies are valued not on their percentage margins, but on how many dollars they actually make, and a multiple of that.

Do something you're very passionate about, and don't try to chase what is kind of the "hot passion" of the day.

I've not seen an effective manager or leader who can't spend some fraction of time down in the trenches... If they don't do that they get out of touch with reality, and their whole thought and management process becomes abstract and disconnected.