Now, I'm not the only language designer with irrationalities. You can think of some languages to go with some of these things.

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.

Hope is the crystal meth of emotions. It hooks you fast and kills you hard.

You can only get really unpopular decisions through if the electorate is convinced of the value of the environment. That's what natural history programmes should be for.

Numerical logistic is that which employs numbers; symbolic logistic that which uses symbols, as, say, the letters of the alphabet.

I think e-books are terrific in their own right. I love being able to get on a plane and basically carry around seven books and it weigh 10 ounces.

There's a history of English literature where the best boils to the top, and Jane Austen stands right at the top of that.

The idea of the nest in the bird's mind, where does it come from?

Life is islands of ecstasy in an ocean of ennui, and after the age of thirty land is seldom seen.

The best book, like the best speech, will do it all - make us laugh, think, cry and cheer - preferably in that order.

People might start with LiveJournal or Blogger, but if they get serious, they'll graduate to WordPress. We try to cater to the more powerful users.

Writing is not just the technical act of your fingers on the keyboard. Writing is living.