T. Boone Pickens

If you don't have a refinery operating, it's hard to use oil that's available.

Far too many executives have become more concerned with the "four P's" - pay, perks, power and prestige - rather than making profits for shareholders.

If you're on the right side of the issue, just keep driving until you hear glass breaking. Don't quit.

Natural gas is the best transportation fuel. It's better than gasoline or diesel. It's cleaner, it's cheaper, and it's domestic. Natural gas is 97 percent domestic fuel, North America.

Chief executives, who themselves own few shares of their companies, have no more feeling for the average stockholder than they do for baboons in Africa.

There's no question that tar sands in Canada are probably the largest source of oil available to the U.S. over a long period of time. There's as much oil in the tar sands probably as there is in Saudi Arabia. The problem is, there's a huge capital requirement to develop that.

I have always believed that it's important to show a new look periodically. Predictability can lead to failure.

It's important to understand that oil and renewables do different things. Wind and solar are for power generation, so they don't replace oil. About 70% of all oil produced is used for transportation fuel. Renewables are good projects, but they don't get us off of foreign oil.

Work eight hours and sleep eight hours and make sure that they are not the same hours.

To me, emails are a little bit frustrating. I think that the telephone is much preferred because you get the sound of the voice and the interest and everything else you can't see in an email.

I was very fortunate in my gene mix. The gambling instincts I inherited from my father were matched by my mother's gift for analysis.

Try everything. Do everything. Nuclear. Biomass. Coal. Solar. You name it. I support them all.

It has become cheaper to look for oil on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange than in the ground.

I do believe that oil production globally has peaked at 85 million barrels. And I've been very vocal about it. And what happens? The demand continues to rise. The only way you can possibly kill demand is with price. So the price of oil, gasoline, has to go up to kill the demand. Otherwise, keep the price down, the demand rises.

I think I have more patience now than I did in the past.

You want to compete, and you want to compete at the highest level.

When you look at a commodities market you need hedgers and speculators. If you don't have one, you don't have a market. That's how it works.

I don't like stock buybacks. I think if a company has the money to buy their stock back, then they should take that and increase the dividends. Send it back to the stockholder. Let them invest their money again from the dividends.

I don't care whether you use natural gas, ethanol, the battery. You can use anything, just so it's American.

Never Googled myself. I use a computer for market quotes and news, but I've never Googled myself. But I have visited their headquarters.

You can't invest in natural gas on a daily basis. It's too volatile. But if you think of natural gas as a long-term holding, then you push your profit horizon out. A long-term time horizon would be at least two years.

We're going to have shortages and prices are going to go up. Gasoline is going to be extremely tight for us.

I've always believed that it's important to show a new look periodically. Predictability can lead to failure.

The cheapest natural gas in the world is in the United States.

I don't go cheap on anything, but I'm not a shopper. If I want something, I look at it, decide what it is, but it will usually be the best product. I've got a pair of loafers that I still wear that I got in 1957.

If you can provide the funding and you get the leadership, you'll have a competitive team.

I say, you work eight hours, and you sleep eight hours - be sure they're not the same eight hours.

There is no free market for oil.

I'm focused on energy only. And I know what I'm talking about. And I don't want to be distracted on other things.

Natural gas is better distributed than any other fuel in the United States. It's down every street and up every alley. There's a pipeline.

Natural gas is a better transportation fuel than gasoline, so if that's the case, it's cheaper, it's cleaner and it's a domestic resource.