I founded Atari in my garage in Santa Clara while at Stanford. When I was in school, I took a lot of business classes. I was really fascinated by economics. You end up having to be a marketeer, finance maven and a little bit of a technologist in order to get a business going.

When you're building something, you know all of the trade-offs.

Creativity is every company's first driver. It's where everything starts, where energy and forward motion originate. Without that first charge of creativity, nothing else can take place.

I must confess I've always had a couple of pinball machines in my home and really have enjoyed some of the old classics, like Fireball.

I appreciate the fact that technology and games are a big part of life.

Innovation is hard. It really is. Because most people don't get it. Remember, the automobile, the airplane, the telephone, these were all considered toys at their introduction because they had no constituency. They were too new.

If you really want you people to innovate, buy a science fiction book, tear off the covers, and tell them it's history.