Ellen Ullman

I'm pretty bad at crying.

— Ellen Ullman

I like mysteries.

— Ellen Ullman

I'm a dark thoughts writer.

— Ellen Ullman

I fear for the world the Internet is creating.

— Ellen Ullman

But you can't stop knowing something, can you?

— Ellen Ullman

We don't have to live up to our computer.

— Ellen Ullman

When I am around people I most admire, I tend to hug the wall.

— Ellen Ullman

The brain is plastic, continuously changing its organization.

— Ellen Ullman

The human mind, as it turns out, is messy.

— Ellen Ullman

Even simple fixes can bring the whole system down.

— Ellen Ullman

Writing is a very isolating occupation.

— Ellen Ullman

I won't use Twitter. Twitter posts are thought-farts. I don't care about unconsidered thoughts of the moment.

— Ellen Ullman

What I hope is that those with the knowledge of the humanities break into the closed society where code gets written: invade…

— Ellen Ullman

'I am not adopted; I have mysterious origins.' I have said that sentence many times in the course of my life as…

— Ellen Ullman

I really don't like books when characters are just bad or just good.

— Ellen Ullman

Technology does not run backward. Once a technical capability is out there, it is out there for good.

— Ellen Ullman

UNIX always presumes you know what you're doing. You're the human being, after all, and it is a mere operating system.

— Ellen Ullman

The messiness cannot go into the program; it piles up around the programmer.

— Ellen Ullman

Computer systems could not work without standards - an agreement among programs and systems about how they will exchange information.

— Ellen Ullman

The biggest problem is that people have stopped being critical about the role of the computer in their lives. These machines went…

— Ellen Ullman

“But now what? Is this a ticket to a new understanding of my life, or a bomb that's going to blow up…

— Ellen Ullman

It has occurred to me that if people really knew how software got written, I'm not sure they'd give their money to…

— Ellen Ullman

With every advance, you have to look over your shoulder and know what you're giving up - look over your shoulder and…

— Ellen Ullman

Y2K is showing everyone what technical people have been dealing with for years: the complex, muddled, bug-bitten systems we all depend on,…

— Ellen Ullman

When knowledge passes into code, it changes state; like water turned to ice, it becomes a new thing, with new properties. We…

— Ellen Ullman

The ability to 'multitask,' to switch rapidly among many competing focuses of attention, has become the hallmark of a successful citizen of…

— Ellen Ullman

Human thinking can skip over a great deal, leap over small misunderstandings, can contain ifs and buts in untroubled corners of the…

— Ellen Ullman

If you've ever watched someone who is a mother talk on the phone, feed the dog, bounce the baby, it's just astounding…

— Ellen Ullman

I used to pass by a large computer system with the feeling that it represented the summed-up knowledge of human beings. It…

— Ellen Ullman

The programmer, who needs clarity, who must talk all day to a machine that demands declarations, hunkers down into a low-grade annoyance.…

— Ellen Ullman

“IV. Real techies don’t worry about forced eugenics. I learned this from a real techie in the cafeteria of a software company.…

— Ellen Ullman

The corollary of constant change is ignorance. This is not often talked about: we computer experts barely know what we're doing. We're…

— Ellen Ullman

“I had this idea we would have ordered some good champagne, launched toast after toast to our humanity, which after all had…

— Ellen Ullman

I hate the new word processors that want to tell you, as you're typing, that you made a mistake. I have to…

— Ellen Ullman

“The machine seemed to understand time and space, but it didn’t, not as we do. We are analog, fluid, swimming in a…

— Ellen Ullman

Truly new inventions take time to play out.

— Ellen Ullman

I hate to see capable, smart people out of work - young or old.

— Ellen Ullman

The computer's there to serve the human being, not vice versa.

— Ellen Ullman

There is always one more bug to fix.

— Ellen Ullman

I don't consider myself a Jewish writer.

— Ellen Ullman