What should exist? To me, that's the most exciting question imaginable. What do we need that we don't have? How can we realize our potential?

Any crusade requires optimism and the ambition to aim high

Even before I helped to co-found Microsoft, I saw a connected future . . . I called that future The Wired World.

For the most part, the best opportunities now lie where your competitors have yet to establish themselves, not where they're already entrenched. Microsoft is struggling to adapt to that new reality.

In the first eight or so years at Microsoft, we were always chained to our terminals, and after I got sick the first time, I decided that I was going to be more adventurous and explore more of the world.

As a species, we've always been discoverers and adventurers, and space and the deep ocean are some of the last frontiers.

The only regrets I have are rather prosaic - like I wish I went for a swim in the Pacific.