I thought deeply about this. I ended up concluding that the worst thing that could possibly happen as we get big and as we get a little more influence in the world is if we change our core values and start letting it slide, I can't do that. I'd rather quit.

In order to learn how to do something well, you have to fail sometimes. In order to fail, there has to be a measurement system. And that's the problem with most philanthropy - there's no measurement system. You give somebody some money to do something and most of the time you can really never measure whether you failed or succeeded in your judgment of that person or his ideas or their implementation.

I'll always stay connected with Apple. I hope that throughout my life I'll sort of have the thread of my life and the thread of Apple weave in and out of each other, like a tapestry. There may be a few years when I'm not there, but I'll always come back.

My job is not to be easy on people. My job is to take these great people we have and to push them and make them even better.

You've probably had somebody punch you in the stomach and it knocks the wind of you and you can't breathe. That's how I felt.

the best innovation is sometimes the company, the way you organize the company

Everyone here has the sense that right now is one of those moments when we are influencing the future.