● A lot of companies have chosen to downsize, and maybe that was the right thing for them. We chose a different path. Our belief was that if we kept putting great products in front of customers, they would continue to open their wallets.

● Apple's market share is bigger than BMW's or Mercedes's or Porsche's in the automotive market. What's wrong with being BMW or Mercedes?

● Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren't used to an environment where excellence is expected.

● Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.

● I think we're having fun. I think our customers really like our products. And we're always trying to do better.

● I want to put a ding in the universe.

● I wish him the best, I really do. I just think he and Microsoft are a bit narrow. He'd be a broader guy if he had dropped acid once or gone off to an ashram when he was younger.

● In most people's vocabularies, design means veneer. It's interior decorating. It's the fabric of the curtains of the sofa. But to me, nothing could be further from the meaning of design. Design is the fundamental soul of a human-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service.

● Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.

● It took us three years to build the NeXT computer. If we'd given customers what they said they wanted, we'd have built a computer they'd have been happy with a year after we spoke to them - not something they'd want now.

● My girlfriend always laughs during sex - no matter what she's reading.

● Pretty much, Apple and Dell are the only ones in this industry making money. They make it by being Wal-Mart. We make it by innovation.

● Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.

● The people who are doing the work are the moving force behind the Macintosh. My job is to create a space for them, to clear out the rest of the organization and keep it at bay.

● To turn really interesting ideas and fledgling technologies into a company that can continue to innovate for years, it requires a lot of disciplines.

● You can't just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they'll want something new.