Steve Jobs: Book of Apple Founder's Words Rushed Into Print

Sept. 22, 2011 — -- Steve Jobs, who brought the world the iPhone, the iPad, the iPod and so much more, has left a rich history, both of technological innovations and of thoughts about what people want from them.

Perhaps it's inevitable that a book about him would be titled "I, Steve." Agate Publishing of Evanston, Ill., has assembled a 160-page volume of Jobs' quotations, culled from interviews, public appearances and writings after he co-founded Apple Inc. The book, edited by George Beahm, is due out in November. Its full title: "I, Steve: Steve Jobs In His Own Words."

Now it so happens that Jobs' authorized biography, by Walter Isaacson, was at one time going to be titled "iSteve." It was due out next year, but it was retitled "Steve Jobs: A Biography," and its publication was moved up to this fall, shortly before Jobs announced in August that his health would force him to step aside as Apple CEO.

Doug Seibold, Agate's publisher, said he moved up the publication of "I, Steve" too, and thinks of it as a companion to Isaacson's bio.

"I very much see the book as an homage to Steve Jobs," he said in an email, "and what really drew me to the project was the realization that Jobs is indisputably the most remarkable business figure of the past three decades, and that there was real value in collecting his public statements for the sake of all those people who will find insight and inspiration in them."

Steve Jobs, in His Own Words

Here, with Agate's permission, is a sampling of quotations included in the book:

"We make tools for people. Tools to create, tools to communicate. The age we're living in, these tools surprise you. … That's why I love what we do. Because we make these tools, and we're constantly surprised with what people do with them." — D5 Conference: All Things Digital, 2007

"We do no market research. We don't hire consultants. … We just want to make great products." — CNNMoney/Fortune, February 2008

"What if Apple didn't exist? Think about it. Time wouldn't get published next week. Some 70% of the newspapers in the U.S. wouldn't publish tomorrow morning. Some 60% of the kids wouldn't have computers; 64% of the teachers wouldn't have computers. More than half the Websites created on Macs wouldn't exist. So there's something worth saving here. See?" — Time magazine, August 18, 1997

"A lot of people in our industry haven't had very diverse experiences. So they don't have enough dots to connect, and they end up with very linear solutions without a broad perspective on the problem. The broader one's understanding of the human experience, the better design we will have." — Wired magazine, February 1996

"What a computer is to me is the most remarkable tool that we have ever come up with. It's the equivalent of a bicycle for our minds." — Memory & Imagination, 1990

Reprinted with permission from the forthcoming "I, Steve: Steve Jobs In His Own Words," edited by George Beahm, Agate B2, November 2011.