“E-mail has some magical ability to turn off the politeness gene in a human being.”

I knew that if I failed I wouldn’t regret that, but I knew the one thing I might regret is not trying.

My view is there’s no bad time to innovate.

One of the things that gets me up in the morning is knowing that customer expectations are always rising, and I find that very exciting.

One of the things that gets me up in the morning is knowing that customer expectations are always rising, and I find that very exciting.

Percentage margins don’t matter. What matters always is dollar margins: the actual dollar amount. Companies are valued not on their percentage margins, but on how many dollars they actually make, and a multiple of that.

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

Our biggest cost is not power, or servers, or people. It’s lack of utilization. It dominates all other costs.

To get something new done you have to be stubborn and focused, to the point that others might find unreasonable.

Market leadership can translate directly to higher revenue, higher profitability, greater capital velocity and correspondingly stronger returns on invested capital.

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.

Will you be clever at the expense of others, or will you be kind?

If you’re not stubborn, you’ll give up on experiments too soon. And if you’re not flexible, you’ll pound your head against the wall and you won’t see a different solution to a problem you’re trying to solve.

If you want to be inventive, you have to be willing to fail.

I think frugality drives innovation, just like other constraints do. One of the only ways to get out of a tight box is to invent your way out.

You know, we love stories and we love narrative; we love to get lost in an author’s world.

You know, we love stories and we love narrative; we love to get lost in an author’s world.

We evolved the ability to communicate disappointment to teach those around us good manners

I can’t point to any major episodes of sexual discrimination in my early life. But I was so aware of the crime, the shame that there was no use of my mother’s ability and energy.

I understood somehow my mother’s frustration. And that it was no good not only for her, but for her children or her husband, that she didn’t have a real use of her ability.

Cancer can take away all of my physical abilities. It cannot touch my mind, it cannot touch my heart, and it cannot touch my soul.

Now my ability to notice things and respond to things and be here is far more profound. With that comes happiness, with it comes sadness, but it’s a beautiful life.

The first qualification for a historian is to have no ability to invent.

On the onside, first there is God, then Sourav Ganguly.

Every actor has a strength, and sometimes you just respond to things that you see yourself better at. I’m aware of what I can and can’t do.