Tim O'Reilly Quotes

Programming is not a science. Programming is a craft.

Teaching someone to program is like giving them a superpower.

The process of preparing programs for a digital computer is especially attractive, not only because it can economically and scientifically rewarding, but also because it can be an aesthetic experience much like composing poetry or music.

Learning to program has no more to do with designing interactive software than learning to touch type has to do with writing poetry

I've been programming computers since elementary school, where they taught us, and I stuck with computer science through high school and college.

Computer programming has been traditionally seen as something that is beyond most people - it's only for a special group with technical expertise and experience. We have developed 'Scratch' as a new type of programming language, which is much more accessible.

In a chemistry class there was a guy sitting in front of me doing what looked like a jigsaw puzzle or some really weird kind of thing. He told me he was writing a computer program.

That brings me to Dennis Ritchie. Our collaboration has been a thing of beauty.

You might not think that programmers are artists, but programming is an extremely creative profession. It's logic-based creativity.

Programmers are in the enviable position of not only getting to do what they want to, but because the end result is so important they get paid to do it. There are other professions like that, but not that many.

My background was producing and writing and performing in television when I started out, and I really missed that, that whole creative process that comes from sort of 'me' storytelling.

Computer programming is pretty much guaranteed income. I'm good at it, and I like it.

I always loved the creative process, from 'Shakespeare in Love' to 'Finding Neverland' to 'Basquiat'; whether it's serious, or it's comedic, whether it's the 'inside look' at that, it seems to be a theme of what I do.

It's something special being able to build a program up.

Epic started out with scripting languages in the first generation of the Unreal engine in 1998. I wrote that. There's a place in my heart that comes along with the simplicity of programming in a scripting language.

Programs like ACE's Bootstrap Summer Camp teach our kids important computer coding skills that will allow them to design their own futures.

When I started working with a computer, to me it was kind of like animating with a backhoe. But when you see the results, it just blows your mind.

My dad grew up as a computer programmer, so he always had random computer software, and I started opening up editing software at age 12 and figuring out how to build websites.

I think that some of the writing, directing, and the content is better than a lot of movies sometimes. Actors, well artists in general - actors, writers, directors - what we all care about the most is good work and being able to create something that is really resonant and meaningful.

If you're writing, you're a writer. If you're talking about it or thinking about it, I'm not so sure. Writing is ninety-eight percent work and two percent magic.

I did write some code in Java once, but that was the island in Indonesia.

Programming is how we talk to the machines that are increasingly woven into our lives. If you aren't a programmer, you're like one of the unlettered people of the Middle Ages who were told what to think by the literate priesthood. We had a Renaissance when more people could read and write; we'll have another one when everyone programs.

The most disastrous thing that you can ever learn is your first programming language.

Why is it that we understand playing the cello will require work, but we attribute writing to the magic of inspiration?

Writing, at its best, is a lonely life.