“I certainly was a geeky kid myself, but to me, math and science were always these magical things- powerful tools you could use in incredible ways.”

In terms of a narrative nonfiction book, when you’re describing scenes that you have multiple sources for, and that you have differing sources for, and you decide to choose a path that puts all that information together.

I have an antique console stand-up radio that I bought in a yard sale, that I’ve always half-believed has magical properties. It’s in my office, and it has watched over each of the fifteen books I’ve written. It also helped me find my wife.

Rumor gets printed as fact. We may have lost our critical facility as a nation.

The idea that the story is true is more important than being able to prove that it’s true.

I’ve always loved adventure stories that involve brilliant kids using their brains to beat systems that seem unbeatable.

I write about nerds who go the extra mile and become rock stars.

There’s always going to be controversy when you write the way I write.

Businesses should follow and learn from others successes and failures in order to better understand and predict their own.

Well yeah, there’s definitely going to be a little bit of the author in that. But there’s nothing wrong with that.

People rely on Wikipedia, and a lot of it is wrong. But because there it is on the Internet, they assume it’s right.

I believe Facebook is going all the way. They’re going to reach a billion members and will be the biggest company in the world. It will be a platform everyone goes on the Internet through.

I see myself as an entertainer.

I write nonfiction in this thriller-esque style. I have all the facts; I research it. I have thousands of pages of court documents… I try to get inside my stories.

I write because I can’t sleep.

Seeing someone reading something I wrote on an airplane – things like that are pretty awesome.

One of my first role models was Eugene Lang, a wealthy businessman who went back to his elementary school in East Harlem and addressed the sixth-grade class. He looked out at that sea of faces and said, “If any of you wants to go to college, I will pay for it.”

One barrier to being a great parent is the mistaken belief that we are raising kids.

Saturday night at my house, I often trot out classic movies and force the urchins to watch them. There is much wailing and gnashing of teeth, but I think it’s important to teach kids about American culture, and films are certainly a big part of it.

Speaking of human computers, there is a guy named Art Benjamin, he’s a human calculator. He says it’s a skill he learned as a kid. Now he’s a math professor at Harvey Mudd. He can find the square root of a six digit number in a few seconds. Practice.

You will be raising these kids in your mind your whole life. And they will change you. Your little contribution to it – twenty years from now, they’ll be marching off into other things and that’s still the legacy you leave.

I guess you’re not gonna be happy til’ it’s for real. Four year old kids, doing drive-bys on Big Wheels.

Scholars, street knowledge, Carter kids stuck in the projects.

Mister, I don’t want no trouble. I just came downtown here to get some hard rock candy for my kids, some gingham for my wife. I don’t even know what gingham is, but she goes through about ten rolls a week of that stuff. I ain’t looking for no trouble, Mister.