“When Henry Ford made cheap, reliable cars people said, 'Nah, what's wrong with a horse?' That was a huge bet he made, and it worked.”
“I'm personally a moderate and a registered independent, so I'm not strongly Democratic or strongly Republican.”
“You want to have a future where you’re expecting things to be better, not one where you’re expecting things to be worse.”
“My motivation for all my companies has been to be involved in something that I thought would have a significant impact on the world.”
“If you look at space companies, they've failed either because they've had a technical solution where success was not a possible outcome, they were unable to attract a critical mass of talent, or they just ran out of money. The finish line is usually a lot further away than you think.”
“The United States is definitely ahead in culture of innovation. If someone wants to accomplish great things, there is no better place than the U.S.”
“Target launch date for Falcon I maiden flight is Halloween(October 31) from our island launch complex in the Kwajalein Atoll. For potential customers out there, I should mention that Kwajalein has some of the worlds best scuba diving and snorkeling! It is literally a tropical paradise.”
“The idea of lying on a beach as my main thing just sounds like the worst. It sounds horrible to me. I would go bonkers. I would have to be on serious drugs. I'd be super-duper bored. I like high intensity.”
“I think life on Earth must be about more than just solving problems... It's got to be something inspiring, even if it is vicarious.”
“I'm reasonably optimistic about the future, especially the future of the United States - for the century, at least.”
“If something's important enough, you should try. Even if you - the probable outcome is failure.”
“There are some important differences between me and Tony Stark, like I have five kids, so I spend more time going to Disneyland than parties.”
“Here in the West, people often don't like listening to their leaders, even if they are right.”
“I do love email. Wherever possible I try to communicate asynchronously. I'm really good at email.”
“So we originally expected to make about 35 gigawatt hours at the cell level and about 50 gigawatt hours at the module or pack level. Now we are expecting to do about 150 gigawatt hours in the same volumetric space as the original design.”
“I think it is possible for ordinary people to choose to be extraordinary.”
“I think we are at the dawn of a new era in commercial space exploration.”
“I'm interested in things that change the world or that affect the future and wondrous, new technology where you see it, and you're like, 'Wow, how did that even happen? How is that possible?'”
“The path to the CEO's office should not be through the CFO's office, and it should not be through the marketing department. It needs to be through engineering and design.”
“I just want to retire before I go senile because if I don't retire before I go senile, then I'll do more damage than good at that point.”
“I think it's very important to have a feedback loop, where you're constantly thinking about what you've done and how you could be doing it better. I think that's the single best piece of advice: constantly think about how you could be doing things better and questioning yourself.”
“There's a silly notion that failure's not an option at NASA. Failure is an option here. If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough.”
“I think whenever something is - whenever there's something that affects the public good, then there does need to be some form of public oversight.”
“I started SpaceX with the expectation of failure.”
“What I'm trying to do is to maximise the probability of the future being better.”
