“I think the major good idea in Unix was its clean and simple interface: open, close, read, and write.”

“UNIX is very simple, it just needs a genius to understand its simplicity.”

“You're going to write straight and simple and good now. That's the start.'
'What if I'm not straight and simple and good? Do you think I can write that way?'
'Write how you are but make it straight.”

“No fiction is worth reading except for entertainment. If it entertains and is clean, it is good literature, or its kind. If it forms the habit of reading, in people who might not read otherwise, it is the best literature.”

“Majorities are of two sorts: (1) Communal majority and (ii) political majority. A political majority is changeable in its class composition. A political majority grows. A communal majority is born. The admission to a political majority is open. The door in a communal majority is closed. The politics of political majority are free to all to make and unmake. The politics of community majority are made by its own members born in it.”

“Write with the door closed, rewrite with the door open.”

“Choosing not to read is like closing an open door to paradise”

“It is rather remarkable that the majority of learned men have closed their minds to what seemed bare and simple facts to many people.”

“Tense, unnerved, and close to madness before writing—and when I read what I’ve written it looks so calm.”

“A user interface should be so simple that a beginner in an emergency can understand it within 10 seconds.”