Quotes from Paul Allen

We know a certain amount about neurons. You can do fMRI and watch parts of the brain light up. But what happens in the middle is poorly understood.

The idea that, you know - when I was growing up - that everybody would carry around a portable communicating device, that was science fiction when I was a kid.

I'd love to bring a championship here to Portland.

What should exist? To me, that's the most exciting question imaginable. What do we need that we don't have? How can we realize our potential?

Continuity is important in sports.

Even though Traf-O-Data wasn't a roaring success, it was seminal in preparing us to make Microsoft's first product a couple of years later.

The brain was designed by evolution, so each part of it is optimized for what it does, and it's incredibly, incredibly complex.

Computers are really, basically, computing elements and a lot of memory. They are pretty easy to understand, as compared to the brain, which was designed by evolution.

That darn luxury tax is pretty painful.

You look at things you enjoy in your life, but much more important is what you can do to make the world a better place.

Whenever you make the Super Bowl, so many things - you have to have the good general manager and the coach and the great players, and you have to have not too many injuries - everything, game plans and everything, has to fall very much your way for that to happen.

I got a taste when I was in Kenya a while ago of what medical care was in rural Africa. I was in a town of about 10,000 people, and a shipping container with a rusty microscope was their medical clinic.

I've always been interested in many different things.

There's a whole different way to express yourself in music and the other arts, and it hopefully complements other things you do in technology.

I think I've got such a diverse set of interests - movies, aviation, technology, sports teams.

I've been on record many times in the past about the challenge of being competitive with NBA teams in smaller markets.

As quickly as it started, our business model evaporated. But while Traf-O-Data was technically a business failure, the understanding of microprocessors we absorbed was crucial to our future success.

I believe in the power of shared data and technology to help build a better future.

Languages evolve; ideas blend together. In computer technology, we all stand on others' shoulders.

The thing you realize when you get into studying neuroscience, even a little bit, is that everything is connected to everything else. So it's as if the brain is trying to use everything at its disposal - what it is seeing, what it is hearing, what is the temperature, past experience.

Technology is notorious for engrossing people so much that they don't always focus on balance and enjoy life at the same time.

I'm a very private person that prefers a low profile.

I was a programmer.

There's a long history of artificial intelligence programs that try to mimic what the brain is doing, but they've all fallen short.