Quotes from Stephen A. Schwarzman

It's wonderful to learn about new cultures and to be able to travel easily to so many countries.

China is an indomitable force, and they have a commitment for excellence.

Live life intensely - I've always believed in that.

I think people have to read more and learn more about what's going on internationally.

There's usually room in the theme parks business for efficiencies on the cost side and new investment, which drives traffic.

Today, whenever I'm under pressure to make a decision on a transaction but I don't know what the right one is, I try desperately to postpone it. I'll insist on more information - on doing extra laps around the intellectual parking lot - before committing. I take the same approach with people, too.

The language skill in the U.S. for the most part has been awful. Many Americans don't learn any foreign language.

I've learned that all investments have risk.

The best investments are the easiest ones to approve.

When deals go wrong, you have no one else to blame, so you yell at yourself, and you yell at others.

Inaccurate analysis produces faulty insights and bad decisions - which lead to losing a tremendous amount of money.

When I was much younger, I realized that when I was handling something very large, and I was on my own doing that, that my breathing rate would increase, and that would affect my ability to think as well as I normally would. So when that starts happening, I slow down.

I grew up in a small town outside Philadelphia and went to the local high school, where I ran track all four years.

We need sobriety, rationality, and civility in the discussions on the regulation of financial institutions so that the banks can return in a robust manner to their central role in funding the economy.

I was in an interdisciplinary major - which was a new thing then - which was psychology, sociology, anthropology, and biology, which is really sort of the study of the human being.

Every year, I speak to our new associates and give them this advice, although in my own words. 'This isn't like school,' I tell them, 'where you want to get your hand in the air and give an answer quickly. The only grade here is 100. Deadlines are important, but at Blackstone you can always get help in meeting them.'

I'm doing my sit-ups and watching CNBC. Suddenly, somebody starts talking about me on television... The business has gone into a weird zone of visibility. For those of us who have done it for a long time, it's strange.

I can't micromanage what anybody pays or doesn't pay. But the concept that half of the public isn't involved with the income-tax system is somewhat odd and I'm not saying how much people should do, but we should all be part of the system.

In life, you'll often find that having influence and providing sound advice is a good thing, even if it attracts criticism or requires some sacrifice.

I love picking people. I started Blackstone, and we had no people, and now we have with our portfolio companies about 750,000 people all over the world. Everybody who is at a senior level has ultimately been picked by me.

Sleeping at night is not a specialty of entrepreneurs. The entrepreneur who is sleeping soundly, something bad is happening to that person; they just don't know it's happening yet.

In the Catholic schools, they spend much less money than the public schools, and they get amazing results. Private schools spend much more money than the public schools, and they get remarkable results.

I always felt uncomfortable with real estate because buildings don't move, and neighborhoods change.

I like creating new things.