Steve Jobs' 1985 Interview With PlayBoy: The Juiciest Quotes

In 1985, Steve Jobs sat down with PlayBoy for a lengthy, varied interview in which the now-CEO talked about getting stoned for the first time, having his head shaved in the Himalayas, and the future of computing.

The magazine has re-released the interview--some 15,000 words in all--and we've highlighted some of the most interesting quotes in the slideshow below. Read the full interview on PlayBoy here.

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JOBS: The most compelling reason for most people to buy a computer for the home will be to link it into a nationwide communications network. We're just in the beginning stages of what will be a truly remarkable breakthrough for most people—as remarkable as the telephone.

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JOBS: The most compelling reason for most people to buy a computer for the home will be to link it into a nationwide communications network. We're just in the beginning stages of what will be a truly remarkable breakthrough for most people—as remarkable as the telephone.

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Comments

[uncc49er]

09:34 PM on 11/29/2010

you like steve or hate him, it is always inspiring to read about him. he is one extraordinary person.

[clearpepsi]

08:51 PM on 11/27/2010

worlds worse dresser

[Kache]

10:57 PM on 11/23/2010

"The challenges are to figure out how to ... reinvest it back into the world, which means either giving it away or using it to express your concerns or values."

Boy this young man is full of it. Let's see, the iPad sells for $500+. China gets $6 to manufacture it. That's a $494+ markup. It could be manufactured in South Carolina for $20. So, for want of $14 more to stuff in his pockets, Steve has shown us his real concerns and values are right in line with Lloyd Blankfein's at Goldman Sachs.

Thank you Steve, we needed that (I guess).

[zee12]

11:33 PM on 11/23/2010

Where DO you get your logic from, the Palin institute for higher learning a division of Fox U?

Not only does anyone really know what the profit margin is, but did you not think of what parts, shipping packaging, costs? Don't let little things like facts get in the way of your hate fest though, it must be serving you and your community well.

(BTW industry estimates of costs for the unit are about 60x what you think)

[Kache]

03:53 AM on 11/24/2010

The invoice handed to Nouriel Roubini was $6.

Yes there is overhead - a monstrous ad campaign to keep fanboys indoctrinated....

[Perry Clease]

11:19 AM on 11/25/2010

Don't waste your time on those types of people.

[Katty Sat]

07:34 PM on 11/24/2010

MSNBC News wrote, via research firm iSuppli, that the $499 iPads cost $259.60 to make:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36230912/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets
I personally don't know how accurate this figure is, but I can guess that YOU pulled your figures from a part of your anatomy that is a bit lower than your brain.

[HamletsMill]

05:17 AM on 11/25/2010

#1

[Kache]

10:48 PM on 11/23/2010

"link it into a nationwide communications network"

Perhaps Steve was stoned when he said that. Within a few years a guy named Tim Berners-Lee would invite Steve to CERN to see something he's created. It was all written on Apple computers and designed with the idea that it would only run on Apple servers. Steve could not see what anybody would use it for and suggested Tim had wasted his time creating HTML and the WWW.

[zee12]

11:37 PM on 11/23/2010

Not quite. Http, www were in fact written on Next computers. And your time line is off. And you don't in fact know when the quote was pulled from. And Jobs was a easily one of the earliest adopters of the net.

But again, don't let the facts spoil your truthiness.

[bl8ant]

09:41 AM on 11/25/2010

wow, you're really good at making up facts, you should get a job at fox news.

[flossophy]

04:41 PM on 11/23/2010

In the distant future... Mac folks will think he was J3sus Chr!st.

[Perry Clease]

11:20 AM on 11/25/2010

And you will think that KFC is haute cuisine.

[timekiller25]

01:52 PM on 11/23/2010

Which one of these quotes is juicy? Did HuffPost actually read this before they wrote the headline? Good god...

[Midnightrain]

01:27 PM on 11/23/2010

JOBS: I still don't understand it. It's a large responsibility to have more than you can spend in your lifetime—and I feel I have to spend it. If you die, you certainly don't want to leave a large amount to your children. It will just ruin their lives. [...] The challenges are to figure out how to live with it and to reinvest it back into the world, which means either giving it away or using it to express your concerns or values.
-----------------------

Well, I just gained an entirely different perspective on this man. One I must say that I appreciate.

[Cryostatic]

01:01 PM on 11/23/2010

So, how in love with Jobs do you have to be in order to drag up a 25-year old interview with him?

[crayola 08b]

08:44 PM on 11/23/2010

there's no such thing as having too much love for steve jobs. he's the bee's knee's.

[James Schauer]

12:54 PM on 11/23/2010

I live in Germany now. Nothing about Germans should surprise anyone by now.

[Dougald F Lamont]

12:27 PM on 11/23/2010

The interview is from 1985, but all of the pictures are after Job's return to Apple in 1997. The cube wasn't released until 2000.

[CraigMMcDonald]

12:17 PM on 11/23/2010

Boy, HuffPo really has a chubby for this guy, eh? Every other story is about him

[RevengeIsNear]

01:09 PM on 11/25/2010

Maybe because he's No. 2 on VFs world's most influential people list, and a lot cooler than Zuckerberg

http://www.vanityfair.com/business/features/2010/10/the-vf-100-201010?currentPage=7

[aerynsun2221]

12:09 PM on 11/23/2010

Regardless of any criticisms that are posted here. Jobs is a visionary and risk taker who has transformed how we live our lives. I admire his contributions to society. Do people even remember when you had to use DOS?? When there were no graphics or icons when using word processing software? He boldly steps forward where other lame CEO's fear to tread.

[JasonJM]

12:07 PM on 11/23/2010

He looks like a cancer patient now...

[citizenEP]

02:35 PM on 11/23/2010

That's because he is/has been, you half-wit.

[RevengeIsNear]

01:09 PM on 11/25/2010

LOL

[JasonMcl]

12:37 AM on 11/24/2010

Ask Citizen EP about Steve's Stolen liver. It makes a great story.

[Terris Linenbach]

11:50 AM on 11/23/2010

The phone and the computer are now combined. Apple wasn't destined to be the first decent phone to accomplish this (the iphone is not a Mac), but nevertheless they did it and kudos to Steve for his willingness to kill his Mach/MacOS baby to make that happen. Ordinary people no longer have a reason to buy a computer. Finally, Microsoft can no longer rely on its traditional Windows business. If the xbox and kinect was shrunk into a phone, .. now you're talking. Of course, they won't do that.

[htimsr40]

11:09 AM on 11/23/2010

Apple's obsession with secrecy and controlling users of their devices is particularly ironic in view of Jobs' and Wozniak's early days as hackers, unlawfully using services and breaking into other networks. Jobs is able to laugh about his youthful adventures, but wants to criminalize those who try to unlock Apple's devices to prevent being tied to using Apple's other services just because you bought an Apple device.

[Terris Linenbach]

11:56 AM on 11/23/2010

People used to be pissed at Bill Gates for hiding the source code and making it illegal to run disassemblers against Microsoft products. The feeling was: I bought this hardware and I have the right to know what this software is doing to it. Apple went one step further: you don't even have the right to unscrew the case. Obviously, this was not Wozniak's doing, but Woz knows when to shut up, and go back to the lab. Woz got to dance with a beautiful young woman too, and Steve probably won't. I thank them both for their uniqueness.

[motu]

01:42 PM on 11/23/2010

Oh come on... of course you have the right to open the iPhone case.. just don't expect your warranty to cover fixing the tiny compact thing that was never designed to be opened. And one can open their MacPro tower all the time and still get warranty support since it was designed to be opened without springing parts all over the table.

[Dogma]

01:11 PM on 11/23/2010

There's absolutely nothing ironic about that. In fact it makes perfect sense; they understand that to protect users from the next generation Woz and Jobs jokers, you need to set boundaries.