My dad always told me and my two brothers, “Don’t ever get too proud or too old to say that you love me and to say that you love each other.” “Love” is a pretty commonly used word in our family. When I talk to my brothers now on the phone midday, we always end the conversation saying, “I love you. I love you, bro.”

You know what? Eddie was probably the best leader by example and not so much by words. You know, sometimes if he said something, you know, then you had to stand up and listen to it, but for the most part, he taught me the importance of being there every single day.

Now look here, young man. If you become a medical doctor you will never have a chance to go to the tropics, you will be far too busy.

Run toward the hardest problems. At the time, I didn’t fully understand what that meant.  But over time, I realized this was the best advice I ever received. Hard problems teach you what you're capable of.  Fast forward a bit … 12 years ago, I got a chance to put that lesson to the test. I had the opportunity to become CEO of AMD. AMD had enormous potential, but the company had been through some tough years. Some of my mentors thought taking the job was risky. But for me, this was my dream job. This was what I’d been training for all those years. The opportunity to work at the bleeding edge of technology on problems that really mattered. The first thing we had to figure out was what we wante

Everyone should do it. For me, it’s like going to the gym for my mind.

Dying on the same day as someone much more famous than me.

I think the notion of a bucket list is kind of wrong, actually. If you want to do something, go and do it. Don't put it on a list and think, I want to do this before I die. What if you die tomorrow? Just go and do the things. Seize the day. A couple of years ago, I decided I'd like to do a dance piece, and I ended up doing this one-man dance-theater piece about (Scottish poet) Robert Burns. I just wanted to use my body in a different way.

Biggest lesson; Treat people respectfully. There's a sort of vogue, and there has been for decades now, that the director is god and the director is all knowing.

Well, you have to learn to say no. Certain times you have to think, all right, line in the sand. It’s a gut thing. There’s no rhyme or reason to it. I’m going to do this Beckett Play in London with Daniel Radcliffe. He said this really interesting thing about how he feels that he’s lucky enough that when he chooses a part, that he only does something that he thinks he can bring something to. I think that’s really good, if you have that choice.

I would say, “Don’t worry. It’s all going to be fine.” I always thought it would be fine, but there was a long time when it wasn’t fine. In terms of my career, the biggest thing I wanted to do was work in this theater in Glasgow. That was my dream. I thought that was a huge dream and maybe I’d move to London one day. I just wanted to work and I still just want to do work. I do think this happening to me is partially due to a a willingness to be like “Okay, I’ll go to America.” I’m not hungry.