Bill Gates

“The Gates Foundation has learned that two questions can predict how much kids learn: 'Does your teacher use class time well?' and, 'When you're confused, does your teacher help you get straightened out?'”

“I spend a lot of time reading.”

“I remember thinking quite logically that I didn't want to spoil my children with wealth and so that I would create a foundation, but not knowing exactly what it would focus on.”

“Being flooded with information doesn't mean we have the right information or that we're in touch with the right people.”

“I actually thought that it would be a little confusing during the same period of your life to be in one meeting when you're trying to make money, and then go to another meeting where you're giving it away. I mean is it gonna erode your ability, you know, to make money? Are you gonna somehow get confused about what you're trying to do?”

“If you give people tools, and they use their natural abilities and their curiosity, they will develop things in ways that will surprise you very much beyond what you might have expected.”

“The tablet is not mainstream. Reading off the screen is not mainstream.”

“Who decides what's in Windows? The customers who buy it.”

“Information technology and business are becoming inextricably interwoven. I don't think anybody can talk meaningfully about one without the talking about the other.”

“We all sort of do want incentives for creative people to still exist at a certain level. You know, maybe rock stars shouldn't make as much; who knows? But you want as much creativity to take place in the future as took place in the past.”

“It's fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.”

“Like any well designed software product, Windows is designed, developed and tested as an integrated whole.”

“As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.”

“I don't like typing messages on my phone. Some people get used to it.”

“Just in terms of allocation of time resources, religion is not very efficient. There's a lot more I could be doing on a Sunday morning.”

“Lectures should go from being like the family singing around the piano to high-quality concerts.”

“There are GMO skeptics more in Europe maybe than in other places, but not exclusively.”

“Research shows that there is only half as much variation in student achievement between schools as there is among classrooms in the same school. If you want your child to get the best education possible, it is actually more important to get him assigned to a great teacher than to a great school.”

“We all need people who will give us feedback. That's how we improve.”

“I'm an investor in a number of biotech companies, partly because of my incredible enthusiasm for the great innovations they will bring.”