In Seattle you haven't had enough coffee until you can thread a sewing machine while it's running.

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.

An ideal wife is one who remains faithful to you but tries to be just as if she weren't.

People are more violently opposed to fur than leather because it's safer to harass rich women than motorcycle gangs.

This is courtship all the world over - the man all tongue; the woman all ears.

To Norwegians, the polka is a form of martial art.

All the traditional westerns are about choice and the individual. When progress comes it's much more difficult to define the individual in that world.

Climate change is the greatest threat to human rights in the 21st century.

I was actually the manager of the games department of an amusement park when I was at college, so I understood the coin-op side of the games business very well.

Saxophone is one thing, and music is another.

What I really wanted was every kind of life, and the writer’s life seemed the most inclusive.

They'd poisoned me, dammit. Probably to trade my dead body to the barbarians for Wulfgar's safe return. Or maybe just for the fun of it.