“Lady Gaga is passionate, 100 percent fan-focused, and a fashion icon. At Zynga we’re at least two of those things, three on a good day.”

Zynga executive Owen Van Natta, breaking his long-silent poker face to announce a partnership between the FarmVille operator and the ubiquitously networked singer, VentureBeat, 10 May 2011

“I love young entrepreneurs.”

Flickr cofounder and angel investor Caterina Fake, disclosing one of her weaknesses, Newsweek, 18 November 2010

“The HP board just made the worst personnel decision since the idiots on the Apple board fired Steve Jobs many years ago.”

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, criticizing the decision by Hewlett-Packard’s board to request CEO Mark Hurd’s resignation following an expense-account scandal involving a softcore porn actress, New York Times, 8 August 2010

“FWIW, in case anyone is wondering why I didn’t ask Elon about his divorce, it’s because I’m a business reporter.”

Volunteer Tesla Motors publicist Sarah Lacy, explaining why she didn’t ask electric-vehicles investor Elon Musk any potentially troubling questions about a divorce trial which threatens his stake in the company, Twitter, 5 August 2010

“Nothing Max Levchin ever does seems to be easy. In the fall of 2007, Max finally decided to propose to his long-time girlfriend Nellie.”

Non-business reporter Sarah Lacy, delving into her subject’s personal lives, Once You’re Lucky, Twice You’re Good, Gotham, 2008

“I wonder if people went through the same thing in the mid-1400s as they sat in coffee shops with their pesky paper books?”

New York Times blogger Nick Bilton, demonstrating the untoward effects of depriving a computing-device addict of his fix — in this example, causing him to misplace the origin of European coffee shops by two centuries, Bits, 2 August 2010

“Lying by omission is still lying.”

Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk, offering a detailed explanation of his public-relations strategy, TechCrunch, 11 July 2010

“We had been working on Android a very long time, with the notion of producing phones that are Internet enabled and have good browsers and all that because that did not exist in the marketplace. I think that characterization of us entering after is not really reasonable.”

Google cofounder Larry Page, longwindedly disputing Apple’s claim that Google’s Android army was a response to the iPhone, Reuters, 9 July 2010

“In response to the curiosity, no chairs were thrown, no ultimatums served, I am not moving to Cupertino or Mountain View, I did not take a courier job and I require no assistance finding the door.”

Microsoft entertainment and devices executive J Allard, finally devising to do something genuinely entertaining in the course of exiting his job, ZDNet, 25 May 2010

“When we discuss the future of Twitter, we focus on the mechanisms through which we can build a platform of enduring value.”

Dick Costolo, Twitter’s chief obfuscating officer, explaining to thick-minded ad slingers exactly who gets to make money around these here tweets, Twitter Blog, 24 May 2010

“This is about extending our content offerings so that we’re relevant to both a mass and a niche audience.”

Yahoo executive James Pitaro, on buying cheap-articles factory Associated Content, PaidContent.org, 18 May 2010