Sometimes, to relieve stress, he would soak his feet in the toilet, a practice that was not as soothing for his collegues.

Was he smart? No, not exceptionally. Instead, he was a genius.

One of the strongest motives that leads men to art and science is escape from everyday life with its painful crudity and hopeless dreariness. Such men make this cosmos and its construction the pivot of their emotional life, in order to find the peace and security which they cannot find in the narrow whirlpool of personal experience.

Good telling of human stories is the best way to keep the Internet and World Wide Web from becoming a waste vastland.

More generally, I made an effort to leave out things that weren't relevant to the main narrative themes of the book, namely that there were two sides to Steve Jobs: the romantic, poetic, countercultural rebel on one side, and the serious businessperson on the other.

If you want to be a great American, you have got to understand Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, how the American Revolution happened. I think if you want to be a good citizen of the digital age, it helps to feel comfortable with both the people and the ways of thinking that created the digital revolution.

When you write biographies, whether it's about Ben Franklin or Einstein, you discover something amazing: They are human.