Quotes from Walter Isaacson

We all see nature's wonders every day, whether it be a plant that moves or a sunset that reaches with pink fingers into a sky of deep blue. The key to true curiosity is pausing to ponder the causes. What makes a sky blue or a sunset pink or a leaf of sleeping grass curl?

We wanted to get rid of anything other than what was absolutely essential," he said. "To do so required total collaboration between the designers, the product developers, the engineers, and the manufacturing team. We kept going back to the beginning, again and again. Do we need that part? Can we get it to perform the function of the other four parts?

An academic career in which a person is forced to produce scientific writings in great amounts creates a danger of intellectual superficiality," he said.

the son not of a lawyer but of a high school dropout with a passion for mechanics and his salt-of-the-earth wife who was working as a bookkeeper. Paul and Clara named their new

Apple went public the morning of December 12, 1980. By then the bankers had priced the stock at $ 22 a share. It went to $ 29 the first day. Jobs had come into the Hambrecht & Quist office just in time to watch the opening trades. At age twenty-five, he was now worth $ 256 million.

Skill without imagination is barren. Leonardo knew how to marry observation and imagination, which made him history's consummate innovator.

I hate the way people use slide presentations instead of thinking," Jobs later recalled. "People would confront a problem by creating a presentation. I wanted them to engage, to hash things out at the table, rather than show a bunch of slides. People who know what they're talking about don't need PowerPoint.

then to write this book. Jobs surprised me by readily acknowledging that he would have no control over it or even the right to see it in

Good telling of human stories is the best way to keep the Internet and the World Wide Web from becoming a waste vastland.

launched the Web in 1991, Tim Berners-Lee

You've got to make a new set of friends and interact with a new set of prejudices every time.

The reason Apple resonates with people is that there's a deep current of humanity in our innovation. I think great artists and great engineers are similar, in that they both have a desire to express themselves. In fact some of the best people working on the original Mac were poets and musicians on the side.

The sixties produced an anarchic mind-set that is great for imagining a world not yet in existence.

Alto: "She's a pistol and has the strongest will of any kid I've ever met. It's like payback.

the simplicity that comes from conquering complexities, not ignoring them.

there's a deep current of humanity in our innovation.

So starting in 1999 Apple began to produce application software for the Mac, with a focus

playing juvenile pranks. In twelfth grade he built an electronic metronome—one of those tick-tick-tick devices that keep time in music class—and realized it sounded like a bomb. So he took the labels off some big batteries, taped them together, and put it in a school locker; he rigged

a leader is either very inclusive or a passionate visionary. But the best leaders could be both.

Nature is beautiful.

He knew that the best way to create value in the twenty-first century was to connect creativity with technology, so he built a company where leaps of the imagination were combined with remarkable feats of engineering.

was the result of government policies, carefully crafted in a thoughtful and bipartisan atmosphere, that assured America's lead in building an information-age economy. The most influential person in this process, which may come as a surprise to those who know of his role only as a punch line to jokes, was Senator Al Gore Jr. of Tennessee.

is an unflinching biography of a manifestly great man. . . . Steve Jobs's life was a great story with a near mythic arc, and Isaacson captures it well . . . the book moves at a fast pace with a great eye for detail. . . . Isaacson is perceptive and original.

Portfolio of Diana Walker Photos For almost thirty years, photographer Diana Walker has had special access to her friend Steve Jobs. Here is a selection from her portfolio.