page 112.
"The Cement Plant Road was also the site of another favorite sport of the summer of '77--"dozing." Having discovered earthmoving equipment at a road-construction site, Larson and Gates investigated further. Lo and behold, the machines had keys in them. Under cover of darkness, with the same curiosity that had led them to fool around with computers, Bill Gates and Chris Larson--known fondly in each other's company as "Ugliest" and "Pimpdog"--set about to learn how to run the machines. Slowly, methodically, over half a dozen sessions, they discovered the tricks. This is how you go forward. This is how you go backward. Oh, here's the blade. Here's how you scoop dirt."

Eventually they raced the machines, and Bill Gates almost backed over his Porsche once.

Page 123.
"Gates eventually instructed Miriam Lubow to keep Microsoft supplied with Coca-Cola. When a six-pack disappeared inside of five minutes, Bill explained that he was thinking more in terms of a case. ... [E]mployees with a powerful thirst could hit the fridge with no more than a minor derailment of theri train of thought."

page 130.
"Smith recalled customers 'talking to me because I'd have a suit on or something and I was a little older, and frankly they really thought that Bill was my tech support guy. It wasn't until finally I'd toss a question to him and say "What do you think of that, Bill?" And they'd either catch on at that point or when he'd just kind of open up and it was like drinking out of a fire hose.' That phrase--'drinking out of a firehouse'--would eventually come to be a catchword at Microsoft, symbolizing both the CEO's 'bandwidth' and the rigors of the company work ethic."

page 131.
"Watanabe later said. 'I always felt that only young people could develop software for personal computers--people with no tie, working with a Coke and a hamburger--only such people could make a personal computer adequate for other young people.'"

page 222.
"The leader of the Alps team announced, 'Our engineers will now leave the room for exactly one hour, and when they return they will have a solution to the problem.'"

page 234.
"...was tough as cheap steak when it came down to business."

page 277.
"Then Klunder took off. 'I'm totally burned out. I think technology sucks. I get rid of everything I own except what I carry around in a backpack. Go down to California and find work there as a migrant farmer.' He wound up in the lettuce field near Oxnard. 'I only actually managed to do a few days of farm labor, but since I was putting up my tent, my expenses were pretty low, and I was surviving.' After about six weeks, 'my pack got stolen, and so I was left down in California, basically with the shirt on my back and not a whole lot else. At which point, having the need to eat, I said "Gee, I bet I know where I can get money fast. I can go back to Microsoft."'"

page 323.
"It was during that period that Bill Gates appeared at a Microsoft applications retreat and offered the pithy summary that 'IBM is fucked and we all know that they're fucked. What we're gonna do for the next couple of years is play rats in a maze,' going down blind alleys and backing off, trying one unsuccessful strategy and trying another."

page 347.
"As Slade recalled it, Houtchens asked Bill about a rumor that he was going to split the stock. 'So Bill just sort of rolls his eyes and says, "Give me a pencil." So she does. And he breaks it in two and he gives it back to her. And he goes "There: I just split the stock." That's classic Bill Gates.'

page 378.
"'Good people know their shit and don't take shit from anybody, including Bill.'"

page 446.
"'So that's where there's an internal clash in Bill: between his ability to innovate and his need to innovate. The need to innovate isn't there, because Microsoft is doing well.'"

page 464.
"'It takes a lot of time being single,' Gates told a group in London, his tongue only partially in cheek. 'I think being married will be very efficient.'"