I was public because I started to receive stories from kids who read online that I was gay. They were going through being bullied, feeling like their family didn’t love them, being pushed out of their home, very close to suicide. Just things that really pulled on my heart. I started saying, ‘You know, I am a private person. I’ve kept me to my small circle.’ and I started thinking, ‘That is a selfish thing to do at this point. I need to be bigger than that, I need to do something for them and show them that you can be gay and go on and some big jobs in life.’

More from Tim Cook

View all quotes →