The number of lines of code a programmer can write in a fixed period of time is the same independent of the language used.

The general problem with ambitious systems is complexity. [...] it is important to emphasize the value of simplicity and elegance, for complexity has a way of compounding difficulties.

My definition of elegance is the achievement of a given functionality with a minimum of mechanism and a maximum of clarity.

Because one has to be an optimist to begin an ambitious project, it is not surprising that underestimation of completion time is the norm.

The use of the high level language made each programmer a factor of 5 to 10 more productive in a coding sense and more concerned with the semantics than the syntax of modules.

Design bugs are often subtle and occur by evolution with early assumptions being forgotten as new features or uses are added to systems.

Regardless of whether one is dealing with assembly language or compiler language, the number of debugged lines of source code per day is about the same!

To our dismay, users who had been enduring several hour waits between jobs run under batch processing were suddenly restless when response times were more than a second.

Mankind made up a version of reality we could all live in.

Embrace your grief. For there, your soul will grow.

I thought I was so much smarter than everybody. And I'm not.

Don't do anything in practice that you wouldn't do in the game.

Dark sides are important. They should be nurtured like nasty black orchids.

It may be that we have become so feckless as a people that we no longer care how things work but only the kind of quick, easy outer impression that they get.

It would be easier if I didn't even make the playoffs, it would hurt less. But then I start thinking about how much fun it is.

Anything that forces the human soul to scream out and fight really brings out the best in us, and to have an opportunity to portray characters like that is inspiring.

The poetic act consists of suddenly seeing that an idea splits up into a number of equal motifs and of grouping them; they rhyme.

A surefire method of setting up regular communication with your kids is to get a job in an office which discourages personal phone calls. Your kids will then call you every hour on the hour.