Hatching Twitter Quotes

“The press pass and the a title of “journalist” had been replaced by a smart phone and a Twitter account.”
― Nick Bilton, Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal

“People don’t invent things on the Internet. They simply expand on an idea that already exists.”
― Nick Bilton, Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal

“Some people are destined for greatness; others fall up a hill to get there.”
― Nick Bilton, Hatching Twitter

“History is that certainty produced at the point where the imperfections of memory meet the inadequacies of documentation.”
― Nick Bilton, Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal

“When people ask Biz about his wealth, he tells them that money rarely changes people; it often just magnifies who they really are.”
― Nick Bilton, Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal

“It was a testament to the resilience of humanity. Give a man a tree and he will make it into a boat; give him a leaf and he will curve it into a cup and drink water from it; give him a rock and he will make a weapon to protect himself and his family. Give a man a small box and a limit of 140 characters to type into it, and he will adapt it to fight an oppressive dictatorship in the Middle East.”
― Nick Bilton, Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal

“In the past, history was always written by the victors. But in the age of Twitter, history is written by everyone.”
― Nick Bilton, Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal

“A similar sound, especially light, tremulous speech or laughter.” This is it, he thought. “Agitation or excitement; flutter.” A verb. Twitter.”
― Nick Bilton, Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal

“Since his ousting, Noah had fallen off the face of the earth, no longer showing up at parties, conferences, or bars—and no one seemed to have noticed.”
― Nick Bilton, Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal

“2009 rolled into view, Jack set off in search of what to do next. Now that the possibility of working at Facebook had been put on hold”
― Nick Bilton, Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal

“do”
― Nick Bilton, Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal

“Get out,” Evan Williams said to the woman standing in his office doorway. “I’m going to throw up.” She stepped backward, pulling the door closed, a metal clicking sound reverberating through the room as he grabbed the black wastebasket in the corner of his office, his hands now shaking and clammy. This was it. His last act as the CEO of Twitter would be throwing up into a garbage can.”
― Nick Bilton, Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal

“Ev and Jack had fundamentally different views of what Twitter was and how it should be used. Jack had always seen Twitter as a status updater, a way to say where he was and what he was doing. A place to display yourself, your ego. Ev, who was shy and had been shaped by his days building Blogger, saw it as a way to share where other people were and what other people were doing.”
― Nick Bilton, Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal

“it wasn’t the money that made him turn down Facebook’s proposal. It was that Twitter and Facebook were two completely different companies, with different goals and, as Ev saw it, vastly different morals. Twitter’s”
― Nick Bilton, Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal

“Twitch!” No, that would never work, he thought. So he continued flipping through the tw’s in the dictionary. Twister. Twist tie. Twit. Twitch. Twitcher. Twitchy. Twite. And then, there it was. “The light chirping sound made by certain birds.” Noah’s heart started to pound as he continued to read. “A similar sound, especially light, tremulous speech or laughter.” This is it, he thought. “Agitation or excitement; flutter.” A verb. Twitter. Twitter. Twittered. Twittering. Twitters.”
― Nick Bilton, Hatching Twitter

“At board meetings Campbell would appear to listen to Ev’s presentations on the state of the company. After Ev’s sermons were done, the coach would clap loudly and hug his protégé, proclaiming again to everyone in the room that Ev was “doing a fucking great job!” and asking them to clap (none of this was a usual occurrence in a corporate board meeting). Then, after Ev left the room, proud that his mentor thought he was doing such a great job, Campbell would shout at the group: “You gotta get rid of this fucking guy! He doesn’t know what the fuck he’s doing!”
― Nick Bilton, Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal

“Commander Hadfield wrote. “Loneliness is not so much where you are, but instead is your state of mind.”
― Nick Bilton, Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal

“just setting up my twttr”
― Nick Bilton, Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal

“No, you didn’t invent Twitter,” Ev replied. “I didn’t invent Twitter either. Neither did Biz. People don’t invent things on the Internet. They simply expand on an idea that already exists.”
― Nick Bilton, Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal

“money rarely changes people; it often just magnifies who they really are.”
― Nick Bilton, Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal

“All forms of technology, with the exception of paper, are strictly forbidden inside any high-level Top Secret Sensitive Compartmentalized Information, or TS/SCI area,”
― Nick Bilton, Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal

“Before they knew it, Ev and Biz were getting sloppy drunk with the former vice president of the United States.”
― Nick Bilton, Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal

“(“I don’t use [Facebook]. And I have many concerns about their people and how they do business.”)”
― Nick Bilton, Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal

“there was no backup of Twitter. “If the database goes down right now, we would lose everything,”
― Nick Bilton, Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal

“Hashtags are for nerds,” Biz replied. Ev added that they were “too harsh and no one is ever going to understand them.”
― Nick Bilton, Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal

“they instead peered longingly at their phones, staring patiently while they waited for an update, hoping to find some snippet of information more important than real life.”
― Nick Bilton, Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal

“It could be a technology that would erase a feeling that an entire generation felt while staring into their computer screens.”
― Nick Bilton, Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal

“Ev had known all along that it had never been about the money. A billionaire still throws up into a garbage can. It was about making a dent in the universe.”
― Nick Bilton, Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal

“But the mood wasn’t jovial. There was no laughing. There was only tension that could have been sliced with a tweet and sadness, even among the winning team.”
― Nick Bilton, Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal

“Hey, Ev,” Blaine yelled, his long, pin-straight hair hanging down over his shoulders. “Don’t take less than a hundred million dollars!”
― Nick Bilton, Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal