“Look at the design of a lot of consumer products – they’re really complicated surfaces. We tried to make something much more holistic and simple. When you first start off trying to solve a problem, the first solutions you come up with are very complex, and most people stop there. But if you keep going, and live with the problem and peel more layers of the onion off, you can often times arrive at some very elegant and simple solutions. Most people just don’t put in the time or energy to get there. We believe that customers are smart, and want objects which are well thought through.”

「看看許多消費產品 – 它們有非常復雜的外表。我們試圖做更全面且簡單許多的東西。當你一開始試圖解決一個問題時，你最先找到的解決方法是非常復雜的，而多數人停在那里。但如果你持續下去，與問題同住并多剝下幾層洋蔥外皮，你通常可以獲得非常精致且簡單的解決辦法，多數人就是沒有投入時間或精力到達那里。我們相信顧客是聰明的，且想要經仔細思考過后的東西。」

really (adv.) 是「非常」，在這句里修飾 complicated (adj.)。holistic (adj.) 是「全面性的，非部分的」，如：a holistic approach (一種全面性的方法)。come up with 是「得到」，如：This is what they came up with after a whole night of study. (這是他們研究一整晚后所得到的結果。) live with something 是「長期忍受某困難的事」，如：She has lived with her illness for over a year now. (她已忍耐病痛超過一年了。) arrive at 是「經長時間努力后得到的結果」，如：After much consideration, the board has arrived at a decision. (經許多考慮后，董事會做了一個決議。) elegant (adj.) 是「精致的，優美的」，如：an elegant wave of the hand (優雅的一揮手) think through 是「仔細思考」，如：We need more time to think through this. (我們需要更多時間來仔細思考這個。)
2006 年賈伯斯受 Newsweek (新聞周刊) 采訪討論 iPod 之設計時說了這段話。