As we said in the preface to the first edition, C "wears well as one's experience with it grows." With a decade more experience, we still feel that way.

Trying to outsmart a compiler defeats much of the purpose of using one.

Controlling complexity is the essence of computer programming.

Trivia rarely affect efficiency. Are all the machinations worth it, when their primary effect is to make the code less readable?

If you're as clever as you can be when you write it, how will you ever debug it?

C is a razor-sharp tool, with which one can create an elegant and efficient program or a bloody mess.

Don't document bad code - rewrite it.