Somebody out there is going to do something that's far more surprising than anything that I would do. I was surprised by the whole web thing in the first place.

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.

Oh no I know that look. What are you thinking?That this is the most ridiculous declaration of attraction I've ever heard

Great things are not something accidental but must certainly be willed.

Religion is the impotence of the human mind to deal with occurrences it cannot understand.

Sometimes we can make everything a little too perfect. I always was a fan of giving direction, but every now and then going, "I don't know. What do you think? Let's see what happens."

Improvisation is a compositional method.

I have to believe that somebody up there thinks I've still got some work to do.

And so I think that if the person has the funds, the network, and the equipment to do this, and also the experience, which is the key factor, then they can be quite deadly.

I like to do designs on the side of my face, or cut out foil stickers from the crafts store and put them on my forehead.

I'm always going to keep your heart safe, even if mine has to stop beating for that to happen.

I think it's unworkable. What are we going to have, people like in contentious divorces suddenly claiming that one or the other of them should go to jail because once he or she spanked the child.