The notion of a record is an obsolete remnant of the days of the 80-column card.

UNIX is basically a simple operating system, but you have to be a genius to understand the simplicity.

The only way to learn a new programming language is by writing programs in it.

Unix has retarded OS research by 10 years and linux has retarded it by 20.

C was already implemented on several quite different machines and OSs, Unix was already being distributed on the PDP-11, but the portability of the whole system was new

C is quirky, flawed, and an enormous success.

C++ and Java, say, are presumably growing faster than plain C, but I bet C will still be around.

For infrastructure technology, C will be hard to displace.

A language that doesn't have everything is actually easier to program in than some that do

... with proper design, the features come cheaply. This approach is arduous, but continues to succeed.

I'm not a person who particularly had heros when growing up.

All pleasure is a vice because seeking pleasure is what everyone does in life, and the worst vice of all is to do what everyone else does.

What distinguishes the majority of men from the few is their ability to act accordingly to their beliefs.

He who understands the wise is wise already.

The true objection to slavery is not that it is unjust to the inferior but that it corrupts the superior.

I often talked to Bing Crosby, and while I liked him, I never understood why he was so popular. To me his voice was just a gimmick.

Maybe rock 'n' roll isn't music. Maybe people just need to be reminded that the world ain't the way they think it is.

I don't pray. When I was young, I vowed I never would be caught begging God. If I want something I get it for myself. I go to church only to show the old hens they don't get me down.

You want to see the people you've sort of come to know and love, or love to hate, you want to see them develop in some way. And I hope people get sort of caught up in that arc.

You never know. Say the arena's actually a giant cake-" "Say we move on," I broke in.

My sister and I both benefited hugely from the great security that our parents had given us, and then we went off and squandered it all rushing around in showbiz.