I had come to a stage in life where I didn't need to earn an income, I didn't need to earn a reputation, I didn't need fame, I didn't need any of the things you might want in your early career.

MIT is governed by a second, even higher rule: the inalienable right of academic freedom.

Computer science departments have always considered 'user interface' research to be sissy work.

I'd like to describe a sort of life 20 years ago as being a fried egg. There was a yolk and a white and the white was maybe work, and the yolk was life. Today, it's more of an omelet. It's more mixed and it's more interspersed and I think that that's a more interesting state of being and for some people, they'll say well I want the crisp, fried egg approach to life.

I'm not good at selling laptops. I'm good at selling ideas.

Very often kids don't ask questions in class because they don't want to be seen asking a question.

Even in the developing parts of the world, kids take to computers like fish to water.