The ultimate laziness is not using Perl. That saves you so much work you wouldn't believe it if you had never tried it.

It's not that Perl programmers are idiots, it's that the language rewards idiotic behavior in a way that no other language or tool has ever done.

Norway did not even have a revolution at the time the rest of Europe was busy figuring out human rights and stuff, because we were busy fighting over how to spell it.

We have no mom-and-pop oil rigs in Norway.

Part of any serious QA is removing Perl code the same way you go over a dilapidated building you inherit to remove chewing gum and duct tape and fix whatever was kept together for real.

it's just that in C++ and the like, you don't trust anybody, and in CLOS you basically trust everybody. The practical result is that thieves and bums use C++ and nice people use CLOS.

I guess there are some things that are so gross you just have to forget, or it'll destroy something within you. Perl is the first such thing I have known.

That's why the smartest companies use Common Lisp, but lie about it so all their competitors think Lisp is slow and C++ is fast.

Life is hard, and then you die.

Well, take it from an old hand: the only reason it would be easier to program in C is that you can't easily express complex problems in C, so you don't.

Unformed people delight in the gaudy and in novelty. Cooked people delight in the ordinary.

Never feel shame for trying and failing for he who has never failed is he who has never tried.

Memories are truths we have chosen.

A car for the people, an affordable Volkswagen, would bring great joy to the masses and the problems of building such a car must be faced with courage.

One good thing about leaving daily journalism was that I was no longer obliged to read all the book prize short lists.

I know there is infinity beyond ourselves. I wonder if there is infinity within.

Some play the piano well and some badly and there is a great difference in the melodies they produce.

To defeat all their enemies and be victorious! This is the unpreventable destiny of all the great ideas!

It is wise to be sure, but otherwise to be too sure.

Unfortunately I have no rags-to-riches story to tell. Money never played a big role for me. My parents just had it.

She looked, and a scarlet butterfly flew away from her, away down the length of the tower, and then another, another, an unraveling scarf of butterflies like winged blood.