The system metaphor is a story that everyone--customers, programmers, and managers--can tell about how the system works.

I'm not a great programmer; I'm just a good programmer with great habits.

A plan is an example of what could happen, not a prediction of what will happen.

Optimism is an occupational hazard of programming; feedback is the treatment.

I don't like the feeling, but I've got to say that a little fear makes me a more focused, more responsible programmer.

Testing is not the point. The point is about responsibility.

Listening, Testing, Coding, Designing. That's all there is to software. Anyone who tells you different is selling something.

Make it work, make it right, make it fast.

I've known people who have not mastered their tools who are good programmers, but not a tool master who remained a mediocre programmer.

Sometimes the problem has to mature before the solution can mature.

I tell people to start implementing when they are pretty sure there aren't more important stories out there. An iteration's worth of data is worth months of speculation.

Sacred is greater than science.

The more emotional you are in a situation, the more memories you’ll have of that situation in the long run.

I think hip-hop could help rebuild America, once hip-hoppers own hip-hop... We are our own politicians, our own government, we have something to say. We're warriors. Soldiers.

It is necessary ... for a man to go away by himself ... to sit on a rock ... and ask, 'Who am I, where have I been, and where am I going?

The attacks on our police and the terrorism of our cities threaten our very way of life.

One of the things that's really lousy about making movies is that you have such little interaction with your audience.

If you'll spend time praying for people instead of talking about them, you'll get better results.

I enjoy being characters rather than myself.

When an action is once done, it is right or wrong for ever; no accidental failure of its good or evil fruits can possibly alter that.