Verified

The Playboy Interview, February 1985

David Sheff's interview, published in Playboy's February 1985 issue — the passages most often extracted, their context in the full conversation, and why this interview is one of the two or three most cited primary sources.

D5: What Both of Them Actually Said

The May 2007 D5 conversation between Jobs and Gates — the exchanges that are frequently quoted in isolation, what the surrounding dialogue changes, and what each man said about the other that seldom appears in the excerpts.

Isaacson's Biography as a Primary Source

Walter Isaacson's 2011 biography is the origin of many of the most-cited Jobs quotations — an explainer on what makes it a primary source (the interviews were recorded), where it should be treated as one, and where a separate contemporaneous record exists and should be preferred..

The 1995 Smithsonian Oral History

The April 1995 Computerworld Smithsonian Award oral history interview — what Jobs discussed (the early Apple years, the Mac project, NeXT), why it is underused relative to later sources, and the passages that warrant closer attention.