I haven't had that good a time in ages. Since September 11, really. I just felt so happy, it was like the sun came out of the clouds for me. I love Italy.

Okay, are you really 'experimenting'? How do you know if you're really experimenting? You're working on it methodically and you're publishing the results! It's not an experiment if you don't publish the results in some verifiable and falsifiable form, okay?

You don't get to cut that chain of evidence and start over. You're always going to be pursued by your data shadow, which is forming from thousands and thousands of little leaks and tributaries of information.

I like to get paid for doing basic research, so it's pleasant to write some nonfiction about it.

Here in Europe they had a Dark Age so extensive, radical and obliterative that everyone forgot how to speak Latin.

Hackers are arrogant geek romantics. They lack the attentive spirit of inquiry.

Worrying about a large institution, especially when it has computers, is like worrying about a large gorilla, especially when it's on fire.