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Any quantum computation consists of a sequence of unitary evolutions described by a finite set of Hamiltonians. When this set is taken to consist of only products of Pauli operators, we show that the minimal such set generating su(2^{N}) contains 2N+1 elements. We provide a number of examples of such generating sets and furthermore provide an algorithm for producing a sequence of rotations corresponding to any given Pauli rotation, which is shown to have optimal complexity. We also observe that certain sets generate su(2^{N}) at a faster rate than others, and we show how this rate can be optimized by tuning the fraction of anticommuting pairs of generators. Finally, we briefly comment on implications for measurement-based and trapped ion quantum computation as well as the construction of fault-tolerant gate sets.