The book is not really the container for the book. The book itself is the narrative. It's the thing that people create.

A brand for a company is like a reputation for a person. You earn reputation by trying to do hard things well.

The common question that gets asked in business is, why? That’s a good question, but an equally valid question is, why not?

We can't be in survival mode. We have to be in growth mode.

What we want to be is something completely new. There is no physical analog for what Amazon.com is becoming.

One of the huge mistakes people make is that they try to force an interest on themselves. You don't choose your passions; your passions choose you.

If you do build a great experience, customers tell each other about that. Word of mouth is very powerful.

It's hard to find things that won't sell online.

Everything you are comes from your choices.

A company shouldn't get addicted to being shiny, because shiny doesn't last.

We've had three big ideas at Amazon that we've stuck with for 18 years, and thy're the reason we're successful: Put the customer first. Invent. And be patient.

Don't blame me. That's evolution. Evolution's always hard. Hard and bleak. No such thing as happy evolution.

Friendship without self-interest is one of the rare and beautiful things of life.

When you are content to be simply yourself and don't compare or compete, everybody will respect you.

Anytime you have an opportunity as an actor to really grow along with your character, I think thats a real gift.

I mean, sometimes we do do that, The National Anthem was a caustic satire and sometimes that's the way to go with the story rather than me being particularly misanthropic.

I would like to make it so that education was a right, and not a privilege.

"Government" is the name we give to the things we choose to do together.

What shall we call this undetermin'd state, This narrow isthmus 'twixt two boundless oceans, That whence we came, and that to which we tend?

I was a mixture of being incredibly old for my age and incredibly backwards. I was born quite old, but then I stopped growing. I lived with my mum and dad till I was 30.

It's the adrenaline rush you only get from being in front of an audience. It's addictive.