We worried about competitors, but it was an unreasonable fear. As a friend once pointed out, most gunshot wounds are self-inflicted.

If I'd had more time or been a better writer, I would have tried to put the same ideas and experiences into a novel. But I didn't so I slapped it up on the Web.

We're not a vocational school. If someone wants to get a high-paying job, I would hope that there are easier ways to do it than working through a formal computer science curriculum.

SQL, Lisp, and Haskell are the only programming languages that I've seen where one spends more time thinking than typing.

Even the lamest page can be saved by collaboration.

Greenspun's Tenth Rule of Programming: any sufficiently complicated C or Fortran program contains an ad hoc informally-specified bug-ridden slow implementation of half of Common Lisp.

The devil is real. He lives inside C programs.

Although the Buddhists will tell you that desire is the root of suffering, my personal experience leads me to point the finger at system administration.

Remember that in 1993 a company with a bad Web site needed an engineer. Today, a company with a bad Web site needs a psychiatrist.

I don't myself believe in astrology. However, I think that's because I'm a Libra and Libras are always skeptical.

Like most people in Academia, my vision of the future is the same as the average industry person's vision of five years ago.

It is absolutely certain that we must act to protect nature much more efficiently than ever before. Tomorrow – when mankind will step forward to a totally uncertain future – will be too late.

Women often forget that the man she is complaining about is a creation of a mother like her.

History is past politics and politics present history.

The very nature of Joy makes nonsense of our common distinction between having and wanting.

Good karma leads to rebirth also. The desire for higher states of mind is a desire. When you are fixated on higher states of mind, you don't become enlightened.

I've always liked what the Navajos say when they part. They never say 'Goodbye.' They say 'Go in beauty.'

I tweet too much. I can't even pretend it's because I'm talking to fans.

Some fellows get credit for being conservative when they are only stupid.

In the summer of 2009, I was at the Shakespeare lab at the public theater in New York.