Quotes from Bill Gates

Africa is on the rise.

Innovation is moving at a scarily fast pace.

3D is a way of organizing things, particularly as we're getting much more media information on the computer, a lot more choices, a lot more navigation than we've ever had before.

I'm an investor in a number of biotech companies, partly because of my incredible enthusiasm for the great innovations they will bring.

Well I think any author or musician is anxious to have legitimate sales of their products, partly so they're rewarded for their success, partly so they can go on and do new things.

I'm going to save my public voice largely for the issues where I have some depth.

The difference between a stranger sending you a message that you might be interested in at a very low volume level, no repetition, just sending it to very few people, and that being done as spam - those things get close enough that you want to be careful never to filter out something that's legitimate.

I do the dishes every night - other people volunteer, but I like the way I do it.

India has over 20 percent of the kids born in the world. And they move around a lot.

I'm not big on to-do lists. Instead, I use e-mail and desktop folders and my online calendar. So when I walk up to my desk, I can focus on the e-mails I've flagged and check the folders that are monitoring particular projects and particular blogs.

One thing I've always loved about the culture at Microsoft is there is nobody who is tougher on us, in terms of what we need to learn and do better, than the people in the company itself. You can walk down these halls, and they'll tell you, 'We need to do usability better, push this or that frontier.'

Microsoft Research has a thing called the Sense Cam that, as you walk around, it's taking photos all the time. And the software will filter and find the ones that are interesting without having to think, 'Let's get out the camera and get that shot.' You just have that, and software helps you pick what you want.

I believe the returns on investment in the poor are just as exciting as successes achieved in the business arena, and they are even more meaningful!

You can always think of something like the Xbox 360 as a super set-top box that can do everything the set-top box does, but then have the graphics to do the games as well.

Legacy is a stupid thing! I don't want a legacy.

I can understand wanting to have millions of dollars; there's a certain freedom, meaningful freedom, that comes with that.

The misconception that aid falls straight into the hands of dictators largely stems from the Cold War era.

I think any statement about stock prices is always suspect unless it's made by Warren Buffett.

I'm sorry that we have to have a Washington presence. We thrived during our first 16 years without any of this. I never made a political visit to Washington and we had no people here. It wasn't on our radar screen. We were just making great software.

People should just buy a CD and rip it. You are legal then.

Really advanced civilization is based on advances in energy.

Maintaining a consistent platform also helps improve product support - a significant problem in the software industry.

One of the statistics that always amazes me is the approval of the Chinese government, not elected, is over 80 percent. The approval of the U.S. government, fully elected, is 19 percent. Well, we elected these people and they didn't elect those people. Isn't it supposed to be different? Aren't we supposed to like the people that we elected?

You can make money and you can make excuses, but you can never make money out of excuses.