Elon Musk Archive
All Misc

Written interviews

Print and online interviews given by Elon Musk — the full text of each conversation, with a few standout quotes and a link to the original source.

·Forbes — Jim Clash

Elon Musk Tells Me His Secret Of Success (Hint: It Ain’t About The Money)

In a 2014 interview with Forbes contributor Jim Clash, Elon Musk explains that money has never been his real motivation: what drives him is doing work he is passionate about that is also useful to others.

Notable quotes

  • “People should pursue what they're passionate about. That will make them happier than pretty much anything else.”
  • “I want them to add more than they take.”
Read the full interview →Original source
·HuffPost — The WorldPost (Nathan Gardels)

Innovations That Will Change Your Life: A Conversation With Elon Musk

A wide-ranging WorldPost conversation with Nathan Gardels in which Musk lays out the innovations he believes will reshape civilization — sustainable energy, a multi-planetary future, genetic code, and AI — and warns about a coming demographic implosion.

Notable quotes

  • “If you get up in the morning and think the future is going to be better, it is a bright day. Otherwise, it's not.”
  • “Such a civilization would be the best adventure and something really inspiring that would make life more fun.”
  • “I hope the AI is nice to us.”
Read the full interview →Original source
·Universe Today — Ken Kremer

Elon Musk Briefs Universe Today & Media ahead of Revolutionary Falcon 9 Blastoff

Pre-launch press briefing given by Musk in Cocoa Beach, Florida, on November 24, 2013, to a small group of reporters including Universe Today's Ken Kremer, on the eve of the first Florida flight of the upgraded Falcon 9 v1.1 with the SES-8 satellite — SpaceX's first commercial launch to geostationary transfer orbit.

Notable quotes

  • “This launch is very important to the future of SpaceX. This is our toughest mission yet!”
  • “Whether or not this launch is successful, I'm confident we will certainly make it on some subsequent launch.”
  • “I don't want to tempt fate, but I think it's going to have a pretty significant impact on the world launch market and on the launch industry because our prices are the most competitive of any in the world.”
Read the full interview →Original source
·Wired — Carl Hoffman

Now 0-for-3, SpaceX's Elon Musk Vows to Make Orbit

Days after Falcon 1's third failure, Musk talks to Wired about SpaceX's setbacks, why the losses still count as progress, and his refusal to give up — "Optimism, pessimism, f*** that; we're going to make it happen."

Notable quotes

  • “Optimism, pessimism, f*** that; we're going to make it happen.”
  • “We must get to orbit eventually, and we will. It might take us one, two or three more tries, but we will.”
Read the full interview →Original source
·Los Angeles Times — Josh Friedman

Dot-commer puts profits into reliable, cheap rocket

Profile and interview by Josh Friedman for the Los Angeles Times, written months after SpaceX was founded. Musk, then 31, explains why he is putting $50 million of his PayPal fortune into an unproven rocket maker in El Segundo.

Notable quotes

  • “I like to be involved in things that change the world.”
  • “The Internet did, and space will probably be more responsible for changing the world than anything else.”
Read the full interview →Original source