Computer science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes.

If debugging is the process of removing software bugs, then programming must be the process of putting them in.

The question of whether computers can think is like the question of whether submarines can swim.

Programming is one of the most difficult branches of applied mathematics; the poorer mathematicians had better remain pure mathematicians.

The lurking suspicion that something could be simplified is the world's richest source of rewarding challenges.

The purpose of abstraction is not to be vague, but to create a new semantic level in which one can be absolutely precise.

Simplicity and elegance are unpopular because they require hard work and discipline to achieve and education to be appreciated.

Program testing can be used to show the presence of bugs, but never to show their absence!

Elegance is not a dispensable luxury but a factor that decides between success and failure.

Teaching COBOL ought to be regarded as a criminal act.

Perfecting oneself is as much unlearning as it is learning.

A dog is the most joyful friend that you can have.

The sea always offers up incredible stories of survivors' fortitude. Myths of a lot of countries have variations on that.

I was born knowing that I had to be a painter, because my father, an art historian, always presented painting as the only acceptable thing in life.

All my good reading, you might say, was done in the toilet.

'Sugarland Express' was pretty amazing.

I didn't use a phone until I was 14.

I don't write for children. I write, and somebody says, 'That's for children.'

God has forgiven you; you'd be wise to do the same

Marilyn Monroe never sold a platinum album. And more people know my music than what I look like.

I've had no money, absolutely, from my family. They paid for a good education - or schools that purported to be a good education - but, um, not a dime.