There's a silly notion that failure's not an option at NASA. Failure is an option here. If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough.

The factory is the machine that builds the machine.

Stationary storage will be as big as the car business long term. The growth rate will probably be several times what it is for the car business.

The pace of progress on Mars depends upon the pace of progress of SpaceX.

There's nothing - I've bought everything I want. I don't like yachts or anything; you know, I'm not a yacht person, and I've got pretty much the nicest plane I'd want to have.

The U.S. automotive industry has been selling cars the same way for over 100 years, and there are many laws in place to govern exactly how that is to be accomplished.

If you think back to the beginning of cell phones, laptops or really any new technology, it's always expensive.

It is theoretically possible to warp spacetime itself, so you're not actually moving faster than the speed of light, but it's actually space that's moving.

I tend to approach things from a physics framework. And physics teaches you to reason from first principles rather than by analogy.

Land on Mars, a round-trip ticket - half a million dollars. It can be done.

Some companies out there quote a start of production that is substantially in advance of when customers get their cars.

I think long term you can see Tesla establishing factories in Europe, in other parts of the U.S. and in Asia.

There are some important differences between me and Tony Stark, like I have five kids, so I spend more time going to Disneyland than parties.

I think Tesla will most likely develop its own autopilot system for the car, as I think it should be camera-based, not Lidar-based. However, it is also possible that we do something jointly with Google.

A Prius is not a true hybrid, really. The current Prius is, like, 2 percent electric. It's a gasoline car with slightly better mileage.

I'm reasonably optimistic about the future, especially the future of the United States - for the century, at least.

I had so many people try to talk me out of starting a rocket company, it was crazy.

The value of beauty and inspiration is very much underrated, no question. But I want to be clear: I'm not trying to be anyone's savior. I'm just trying to think about the future and not be sad.

The lessons of history would suggest that civilisations move in cycles. You can track that back quite far - the Babylonians, the Sumerians, followed by the Egyptians, the Romans, China. We're obviously in a very upward cycle right now, and hopefully that remains the case. But it may not.

Over time I think we will probably see a closer merger of biological intelligence and digital intelligence.