XAVIER NIEL

We need to create an ecosystem which will make young people want to start their own company.

I always follow the same idea: Start small and disrupt to create something big.

The question for France and all countries is, 'Do you favour foreign Internet operators that do not pay, or do you favour national operators who pay?'

Each week I try to have three lunches with my children, one working lunch, and one lunch with mates.

A free, analytical and questioning press must be helped survive.

I'd rather people talked about the 1,000 most successful French Internet companies instead of the 5 or 10 faces we already know - including mine.

YouTube is a problem. It has very big traffic, but it refuses to contribute to the weight of that traffic.

I don't think Steve Jobs had much desire to share his fortune.

Countries like France should not be naive. We don't have a French YouTube or Amazon or Netflix.

I'm not unusual; it's the others who are strange.

France has a specificity - the market players who provide Internet access are the telecom operators, and all of the players are French. They had a habit of, let's say, getting along with each other, and the prices traditionally were very high.

You can spend your money on art works and sit down and look at them. Or you can use your money to help people.

France is a fantastic country. It's between the Anglo-Saxon and Latin cultures. We have some of the Anglo-Saxon rigor, and some of the Latin quirkiness.

Any country that wants to lower its mobile phone rates, all they need to do is bring in an aggressive player.

Nobody believed in the success of the Internet.

'Entrepreneur' is a French word.

France has the least social mobility of any developed country. The social elevator no longer works. It's broken.

Telecoms is a national business. There isn't a European market. There's no Telecom Italia in France.

If you know how to make software, then you can create big things.

Mark Zuckerberg did his own software for Facebook, and Larry Page and Sergey Brin made their own for Google.

If you are worried about the risk to your reputation, you don't launch a telecoms firm in an aggressive way.

The most sought-after candidates in the world today by companies like mine are people who make computer software - there's a shortage of talent.

I know one business, and that's how to make software.

I once said, 'Steve Jobs is the American Xavier Niel,' but that was humour.

I like being an outsider. It is better in France on the outside.