Larry Wall: Quotes about people

“Real theology is always rather shocking to people who already think they know what they think. I'm still shocked myself.”

Larry Wall

[199708261932.MAA05218@wall.org, 1997]
Usenet postings, 1997

People , Thinking

“… Then you start building things like the Berlin wall to keep people inside your community. In anthropological terms, that's tribalism. A tribal Perl programmer might say, "If you leave the Perl tribe to go and join the Python tribe, we will hunt you down, cook you, and eat you." Or if you join the Ruby tribe, you will explode. By and large, I am not in favor of tribalism. Except for my tribe, of course.”

Larry Wall

ibid.
Other

People , Communication , Cooking

“So please don't think I have a 'down' on the MVS people. I'm just pulling off their arms to beat other people over the head with.”

Larry Wall

[199808050415.VAA24026@wall.org, 1998]
Usenet postings, 1998

People , Thinking

“[Boxed] Multiple bouncing balls in a box are a metaphor for community. Notice how the escaping balls explode. This is what happens to people who move from Perl to Ruby.”

Larry Wall

"The State of the Onion", perl.com, 2004-08-18 http://www.perl.com/pub/a/2004/08/18/onion.html?page=4
In reference to the boxed screensaver that comes with <code>xscreensaver</code>.
Other

People , Communication , Box

“I started out as a BASIC programmer. Some people would say that I'm permanently damaged. Some people are undoubtedly right… But I'm not going to apologize for that. All language designers have their occasional idiosyncracies. I'm just better at it than most.”

Larry Wall

Public Talks, The State of the Onion 11

People

“(To someone at New York University) If you consistently take an antagonistic approach, however, people are going to start thinking you're from New York.”

Larry Wall

[10187@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV, 1990]
Usenet postings, 1990

People , Thinking , Universe

“I want to see people using Perl to glue things together creatively, not just technically but also socially.”

Larry Wall

[199702111730.JAA28598@wall.org, 1997]
Usenet postings, 1997

People

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

Larry Wall

[199806232054.NAA01735@wall.org, 1998]
Usenet postings, 1998

People

“One thing I do understand is that people get scared when I start thinking out loud.”

Larry Wall

[20031212010945.GB29594@wall.org, 2003]
Usenet postings, 2003

People , Understanding , Thinking

“There's some entertainment value in watching people juggle nitroglycerin.”

Larry Wall

[199712041747.JAA18908@wall.org, 1997]
Usenet postings, 1997

People

“What is the sound of Perl? Is it not the sound of a wall that people have stopped banging their heads against?”

Larry Wall

[1992Aug26.184221.29627@netlabs.com, 1992]
Usenet postings, 1992

People

“P. S. I suppose I really should be nicer to people today, considering I'll be singing in Billy Graham's choir tonight…”

Larry Wall

[199709261754.KAA23761@wall.org, 1997]
Usenet postings, 1997

People , Singing

“But I know what's important to me, and what isn't. And I think I know what people can get used to, and what they can even learn to like. (It just takes some people longer than others. :-)”

Larry Wall

Usenet postings, 1998

People , Thinking , Learning

“Well, you know, Hubbard had a bunch of people sworn to commit suicide when he died. So of course he never officially died…”

Larry Wall

[199804141540.IAA05247@wall.org, 1998]
Usenet postings, 1998

People , Suicide

“The only reason I've managed to run this open source project, is that I have learned to delegate even the delegation to other people.”

Larry Wall

final words of the video
Public Talks, Larry Wall Speaks at Google (2008)

People , Learning

“Not that I'm against sneaking some notions into people's heads upon occasion. (Or blasting them in outright.)”

Larry Wall

Usenet postings, 1997

People

“Magically turning people's old scalar contexts into list contexts is a recipe for several kinds of disaster.”

Larry Wall

[199709291631.JAA08648@wall.org, 1997]
Usenet postings, 1997

People

“People understand instinctively that the best way for computer programs to communicate with each other is for each of the them to be strict in what they emit, and liberal in what they accept. The odd thing is that people themselves are not willing to be strict in how they speak, and liberal in how they listen. You'd think that would also be obvious. Instead, we're taught to express ourselves.”

Larry Wall

Public Talks, "2nd State of the Onion"

People , Way , Communication , Understanding

“We didn't put in ^^ because then we'd have to keep telling people what it means, and then we'd have to keep telling them why it doesn't short circuit. :-/”

Larry Wall

[199707300650.XAA05515@wall.org, 1997]
Usenet postings, 1997

People

“People who understand context would be steamed to have someone else dictating how they can call it.”

Larry Wall

[199710221710.KAA24242@wall.org, 1997]
Usenet postings, 1997

People , Understanding