The world is not yet finished, but everyone is behaving as if everything was known. This is not true. In fact, the computer world as we know it is based upon one tradition that has been waddling along for the last fifty years, growing in size and ungainliness, and is essentially defining the way we do everything. My view is that today’s computer world is based on techie misunderstandings of human thought and human life. And the imposition of inappropriate structures throughout the computer is the imposition of inappropriate structures on the things we want to do in the human world.

The paperless office is possible, but not by imitating paper. Note that the horseless carriage did not work by imitating horses.

Computers are hierarchical. We have a desktop and hierarchical files which have to mean everything.

I was very intensely concerned with all kinds of new media.

Everybody has only a 24-hour day. Most people, if they increase consumption of one medium (like magazines or books) will cut down on another (like TV). This drastically reduces the sort of growth some people have been expecting.

Project Xanadu is essentially my trademark. It was originally, and has returned to my arms as that.

You can and must understand computers now.