I think that it's extraordinarily important that we in computer science keep fun in computing. When it started out, it was an awful lot of fun. Of course, the paying customers got shafted every now and then, and after a while we began to take their complaints seriously. We began to feel as if we really were responsible for the successful, error-free perfect use of these machines. I don't think we are. I think we're responsible for stretching them, setting them off in new directions, and keeping fun in the house. I hope the field of computer science never loses its sense of fun.

A year spent in artificial intelligence is enough to make one believe in God.

It is easier to change the specification to fit the program than vice versa.

Once you understand how to write a program get someone else to write it.

Often it is the means that justify the ends: goals advance technique and technique survives even when goal structures crumble.

It is better to have 100 functions operate on one data structure than to have 10 functions operate on 10 data structures.

To understand a program, you must become both the machine and the program.