Larry Wall Quotes

We're systems software people ourselves. We wanted a language to make our lives better.

There was something amazingly enticing about programming.

Learn when and how to use different data structures and their algorithms in your own code. This is harder as a student, as the problem assignments you'll work through just won't impart this knowledge. That's fine.

Somebody writing a subroutine is unbelievable boring.

I am a programmer.

'Programming' is a four-letter word.

Low-level programming is good for the programmer's soul.

In the beginning, there were Real Programmers.

Software is a great combination between artistry and engineering.

Even though I had the talent, programming just didn't feel right. I never considered it very seriously. Some people get gratification from bending a machine to their will. I didn't.

If you think about computer programming, it's as antisocial as it gets.

My list of basic tools is a partial answer to the question about what has changed: Over the past few years, large numbers of programmers have come to depend on elaborate tools to interface code with systems facilities.

The best thing about writing programs is that it rationalized the apprenticeship of a writer.

Many days I don't write any code at all, and some days I spend all day writing code.

No matter what, the way to learn to program is to write code and rewrite it and see it used and rewrite again. Reading other people's code is invaluable as well.

I suppose I should learn Lisp, but it seems so foreign.

The three chief virtues of a programmer are: Laziness, Impatience and Hubris.

Computer programming is pretty much guaranteed income. I'm good at it, and I like it.

I love computer programmers. They have a very beautiful definition of complexity as 'the capacity to transmit the maximum information with the minimum data'.

I understand what scripting and programming is, but do I know how to do it? Not really. But, I think that even knocking on the door allows you to understand a little bit of that kind of stuff. Mainly what 'Silicon Valley' has taught me, in that respect, is the business side of it, with that gold rush element as opposed to creating software.

I don't know how to code. I should know how to code.

The only thing I understand deeply, because in my teens I was thinking about it, and every year of my life, is software. So I'll never be hands-on on anything except software.

Whether you draw diagrams that generate code or you type at a browser, you are coding.

As technologists, we all write code.

I don't like programming. It's tedious.