Larry Wall

Even the White House has a press agent.

— Larry Wall

Symmetry is overrated. Overrated is symmetry.

— Larry Wall

It's hard to tune heavily tuned code.

— Larry Wall

Just don't create a file called.

— Larry Wall

A good messenger expects to get shot.

— Larry Wall

At many levels, Perl is a 'diagonal' language.

— Larry Wall

I'm a great believer in visual distinctions.

— Larry Wall

Odd that we think definitions are definitive.

— Larry Wall

There's a saying in the software design industry: "Good. Fast. Cheap. Pick two."

— Larry Wall

Perl should remain fast and intuitive (to the extent that it is :-)

— Larry Wall

Yes, but I did manage to increase the amount of virginity in the world by that method.

— Larry Wall

That which hits the fan tends to get flung in all directions.

— Larry Wall

I think it's a new feature. Don't tell anyone it was an accident.

— Larry Wall

I'd make people say 'use Fork;' if I thought I could get away with it.

— Larry Wall

I still drive my 1977 Honda Accord. The paint is almost all worn off. It's still running.

— Larry Wall

The young think they are immortal, and are determined to prove otherwise.

— Larry Wall

[Boxed] Multiple bouncing balls in a box are a metaphor for community. Notice how the escaping balls explode. This is what happens…

— Larry Wall

But I know what's important to me, and what isn't. And I think I know what people can get used to, and…

— Larry Wall

I think the way IBM has embraced the open source philosophy has been quite astonishing, but gratifying. I hope they'll do very…

— Larry Wall

Part of language design is perturbing the proposed feature in various directions to see how it might generalize in the future.

— Larry Wall

Think of prototypes as a funny markup language--the interpretation is left up to the rendering engine.

— Larry Wall

And don't tell me there isn't one bit of difference between null and space, because that's exactly how much difference there is.

— Larry Wall

It's appositival, if it's there. And it doesn't have to be there. And it's really obvious that it's there when it's there.

— Larry Wall

There is, however, a strange, musty smell in the air that reminds me of something...hmm...yes...I've got it...there's a VMS nearby, or I'm…

— Larry Wall

The random quantum fluctuations of my brain are historical accidents that happen to have decided that the concepts of dynamic scoping and…

— Larry Wall

You cant change the past. You cant even change the future, in the sense that you can only change the present one…

— Larry Wall

Basically there's just so much stuff flowing past on the internet now, you have to let most of it go. And I've…

— Larry Wall

Computer programming is really a lot like writing a recipe. If you've read a recipe, you know what the structure of a…

— Larry Wall

I procrastinate, but mostly because there's always too many things to do, and I got the stew in my mind that things…

— Larry Wall

Well, coffee is my drug of choice, generally, with a little bit of Pepsi here and there, if I need more sugar.…

— Larry Wall

When they first built the University of California at Irvine they just put the buildings in. They did not put any sidewalks,…

— Larry Wall

While I have historically been a late worker, you know, sometimes I even like to get up early and see what's happened…

— Larry Wall

“A couple of years ago, I ran into someone at a trade show who was representing the NSA (National Security Agency). He…

— Larry Wall

I'm definitely a night owl. I get going about the time my wife crashes and goes to bed. And in some sense,…

— Larry Wall

“Modernism was based on a kind of arrogance ... and led designers to believe that if they thought of something cool, it…

— Larry Wall

“The best way to figure out what Perl is used for is to look at the ... Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (the…

— Larry Wall

Perl programming is an *empirical* science!

— Larry Wall

Hubris itself will not let you be an artist.

— Larry Wall

Laziness is a programmers main virtue.

— Larry Wall

Almost nothing in Perl serves a single purpose.

— Larry Wall