Sam Quotes

You want an idea that turns into a monopoly. But you can't get a monopoly, in a big market right away; too much competition for that.

These all sounded really bad, but they turned out to be good. If they had sounded really good, there would have been too many people working on them.

Or a way to stay on strangers couches, that just sounds terrible all around.

The thirteenth search engine- and without all the features of a web portal, most people thought that was pointless.

Growth solves (nearly) all problems

If you want something in a deal, just ask for it.

The way you get deals done and the way you get good terms, is to have a competitive situation.

Developing a personal connection with anyone you're trying to do a big deal with is really important.

Starting a business is like riding a wave between life and death. If you can hang on long enough, you're bound to succeed

The biggest PR hack you can do, is not hire a PR firm.

Press releases are easier to write than code, and that is still easier than making a great product.

Once your product is working, switch from not caring about this to caring about this a little bit.

Here's a good rule of thumb: don't worry about a competitor at all, until they're actually beating you with a real shipped product.

The best founders work on things that seem small but they move really quickly. They get things done really quickly.

Losing focus is another way that founders get off track.

When lack of structure fails, it fails all at once. What works totally fine from 0-20 employees, is disastrous at 30.

You don't need to make the structure complicated, in fact you shouldn't. All you need is for every employee to know who their manager is.

M&A negotiations feel really fun. This is one of the biggest killers of companies, is they entertain acquisition conversations.

I like to carry around extremely pretentious books, and I don't know if I can read them, but if I hold them near me, it imbues me with a sense of powerful intelligence.

I was listening to this record by Paul Desmond called First Place Again. It's incredibly gorgeous. There is nothing better that you would want to get from music than you get from that record.

I am a complete jazz nerd.

When I do older folk songs, I'm not doing them because they're old. I have no interest in reviving or continuing a tradition. I'm just doing them because they're great songs.

Guitar comes more out of its limitations for me, like putting it in a weird tuning and then just go places.

If I pick up a fiddle, I don't compose on it, so much as I just play whatever.

I'm not really a folk singer, but I love the music and there's certain lines that will get just stuck in my head, and they seem to be stuck there for a reason, and I start singing them.

Reading books is fantastic. I didn't do it until ten years ago. It's great.

Music is an immediate art; it's always happening right now.

I think Formula E truly has the potential to become the future of motorsport. Formula One is the past.

When the race to develop becomes more furious as the Championship progresses, the racing will get better too, improving the entire experience for the fans.

I want to win a championship with the best drivers, the best engineers and the best technology. As drivers, we want to make sure that we are involved in a championship with such a standard.

[As in the case of] alcohol prohibition, illegality has driven organized crime, sent countless people to jail, and killed many thousands. Repression does not work.

Incarceration has become a business. It is in the interest of the police and the prisons to keep locking people up.

Drugs are available to those who want them. And where are those profits going? Into organized crime, [to criminals] who spend their profits on the destruction of whole societies.

Through social media, we can start a global conversation. This creates an army of advocates - the power really is in the hands of the viewers.

Even the best documentaries reach tens of thousands in their cinematic window. I believe that by launching online, we could potentially reach millions.

How do you create a film that can reach millions of people and engage them in the subject? You have to take risks and try something new.

My measure of success is to walk into a restaurant and hear a table debating drug policy. Once the public start the conversation, the politicians will join - that is when we can create real change.

If you have a drug problem, you should be sent to a doctor, not a jail cell.

Whether through TV, film, online, app, or web, we will find ways to tell our stories with authenticity, and engage with our viewers beyond traditional means.

Find the pattern and anticipate them!

The people believed that while the courts would be independent, they would defer to the political branches on policy issues.

I want to note that, historically, the make-up of the court has changed just as elected branches have change.

I always think that the party that offers the most hope and ideas for the future is the party that wins.

We are at our best when we help the weakest. The weak make us strong.

Common sense should tell us that positively reinforcing sadistic behavior, as these games do, cannot be good for our children.

Everybody will say that they're not opposed to immigration; they're opposed to illegal immigration. That's what I'm saying.

I'm a Ronald Reagan conservative. I'm an economic conservative, I'm strong military. But I also voice and speak and work hard on the social issues.

I enjoyed working with Ted Kennedy.

Seats on the [Court] bench are not reserved for causes or interests. They're given to those who will uphold the rule of law so long as the nominee is well-qualified to interpret and apply the law.

I'd pull my little brother on our motorcycle on an inner tube behind it. We would go fishing, we would hunt some, growing up.