Some great people are leaders and others are more lucky, in the right place at the right time. I'd put myself in the latter category. But I'd never call myself a normal designer of anything.

I just was non-political and didn't see myself as a person who could push people around, make their decision, you know, and tell them how lousy their work was.

I wanted to be an elementary school teacher my whole life.

Everything we did we were setting the tone for the world.

I have never left the company. I keep a tiny residual salary to this day because that's where my loyalty should be forever. I want to be an "employee" on the company data base. I won't engineer, I'd rather be basically retired, due to my family. (talking about his relationship with Apple Inc)

You need the kind of objectivity that makes you forget everything you've heard, clear the table, and do a factual study like a scientist would.

I never got into Linux. I swear to God, it's only lack of time. I'm past the years of my life where I can really dig into something like running a Linux system. I'm very sympathetic to the whole idea; Linux people always think the way I want to think.