People want to buy mp3s but can't? Piracy ensues. Then Apple strong-arms the music studios into the iTunes store and music piracy drops somewhat. The same, I believe, is also happening with ebooks.

Back before the internet we had a name for people who bought a single copy of our books and lent them to all their friends without charging: we called them "librarians".

Idiots emit bogons, causing machinery to malfunction in their presence. System administrators absorb bogons, letting machinery work again.

The programmers have another saying: 'The question of whether a machine can think is no more interesting than the question of whether a submarine can swim.'

Nothing stands for content-free corporate bullshit quite like PowerPoint. And that's just scratching the surface.

More often than not, piracy is a symptom of an under-provisioned market.

Steampunk is nothing more than what happens when Goths discover brown.

One ape's hallucination is another ape's religious experience - it just depends on which one’s god module is overactive at the time.

Unfortunately it's also true to say that good management is a bit like oxygen - it's invisible and you don't notice its presence until it's gone, and then you're sorry.

Any civilization where the main symbol of religious veneration is a tool of execution is a bad place to have children.

Fiction is about human beings, first and foremost. (It's not impossible to write fiction with no human protagonists, but it's very hard to keep the reader interested ...)

Never underestimate the influence you have on others.

There is the flash in the pan, the sudden success. But continued success is dependent upon tremendous attention to detail.

If economists could manage to get themselves thought of as humble, competent people on a level with dentists, that would be splendid.

Better make friends with an ignoramus who is liberal with his money and of a pleasing disposition than with a scholar who is mean and irascible.

I use the Internet a lot. I don't necessarily constantly communicate with my fans or whatever, but it would be hard to distance myself. I just couldn't do it. It's like not having a phone.

It's a rare thing to find somebody you can work with, work off of, and have fun with.

A car can't operate without the mechanical systems working, but it can operate with a few dents and scratches ... you are the same.

I feel just like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman. You know, except for the whole hooker thing.

I think live-in relations are for people who are not sure, and to an extent commitment phobic.

Mark Twain is a voice of truth and a voice of equality and a voice of tolerance. Which means he is a voice of love.