Just because you can't act EVERYWHERE doesn't mean you don't act ANYWHERE. – Madeleine Albright

— Walter Isaacson

Kissinger would probably be outraged even if he reread his own memoirs, on the grounds that they are not favorable enough.

— Walter Isaacson

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.

— Walter Isaacson

Nevertheless, by dint of his personality and controlling instincts, Jobs was soon playing a stronger role. He spewed out a stream of ideas - some reasonable, others wacky - about what Pixar's hardware and software could become. And on his occasional visits to the Pixar offices, he was an inspiring presence. "I grew up a Southern Baptist, and we had revival meetings with mesmerizing but corrupt preachers," recounted Ally Ray Smith. "Steve's got it: the power of the tongue and the web of words that catches people up. We were aware of this when we had board meetings, so we developed signals - nose scratching or ear tugs - for when someone had been caught up in Steve's distortion field, and he needed to be tugged back to reality.

— Walter Isaacson

Not since the original Mac had a clarity of product vision so propelled a company into the future. " If anybody was ever wondering why Apple is on the earth, I would hold up this as a good example

— Walter Isaacson

One of Job's business rules was to never be afraid of cannibalizing yourself. " If you don't cannibalize yourself, someone else will," he said. So even though an iPhone might cannibalize sales of an IPod, or an IPad might cannibalize sales of a laptop, that did not deter him.

— Walter Isaacson

One of Job's great strengths was knowing how to focus. " Deciding what not to do is as important as deciding what to do," he said. " That's true for companies, and it's true for products.

— Walter Isaacson

One sticking point was that Jobs wanted his payout to be in cash. Amelia insisted that he needed to "have skin in the game" and take the payout in stock that he would agree to hold for at least a year.

— Walter Isaacson

One sticking point was that Jobs wanted his payout to be in cash. Amelia insisted that he needed to "have skin in the game" and take the payout in stock that he would agree to hold for at least a year.” Jobs resisted. Finally, they compromised: Jobs would take $120 million in cash and $37 million in stock, and he pledged to hold the stock for at least six months.

— Walter Isaacson

On its first over was the famous picture of Earth taken from space; its subtitle was "Access to Tools." The underlying philosophy was that technology could be our friend. Brand wrote on the first page of the first edition, "A realm of intimate, personal power is developing-power of the individual to conduct his own education, find his own inspiration, shape his own environment, and share his adventure with whoever is interested. Tools that aid this process are sought and promoted by the Whole Earth Catalog.

— Walter Isaacson