You can never entirely stop being what you once were. That's why it's important to be the right person today, and not put it off till tomorrow.

Younger hackers are hard to classify. They're probably just as diverse as the old hackers are. We're all over the map.

At many levels, Perl is a 'diagonal' language.

Most of you are familiar with the virtues of a programmer. There are three, of course: laziness, impatience, and hubris.

For me, writing is a love-hate relationship.

Portability should be the default.

I think software patents are a bad idea. Many patents are given for trivial inventions.

Symmetry is overrated. Overrated is symmetry.

The Harvard Law states: Under controlled conditions of light, temperature, humidity, and nutrition, the organism will do as it damn well pleases.

Over the long term, symbiosis is more useful than parasitism. More fun, too. Ask any mitochondria.

Hubris itself will not let you be an artist.

...there remained a strange formality between them, and her pleasure in his presence felt too much like missing him had felt during the last week.

Those who love a cause are those who love the life which has to be led in order to serve it.

To me, the solidarity of readers is far more important than the solidarity of writers, particularly since readers in fact find ways to connect over a book or books, whatever they may be.

Finding your way doesn't mean you always know where you're going. It's knowing how to find your way back home that's important.

To know, is to know that you know nothing. That is the meaning of true knowledge. When you say something, say what you know. When you don't know something, say you don't know. That is knowledge.

Stores are never nice to people. They're nice to credit cards.

If you view your life as a piece of fabric or a tapestry, the photography is the stitching. It keeps everything together.

Now I can only pray that there may be a God -- and a heaven -- or something better.

I love London. I loved it when I went there in the late '50s.

Oh, to know God's private address.