I've always written. I'm from an older generation of programmers [who] did not come out of engineering. [A]ll sorts of people were drawn in from the …

- Ellen Ullman

To be a programmer is to develop a carefully managed relationship with error. There's no getting around it. You either make your accomodations with f…

- 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 good at fussin…

- Ellen Ullman

Software engineering is not about right and wrong but only better and worse

- Ellen Ullman

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

- 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. It is here …

- Ellen Ullman

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

- Ellen Ullman

We build our computer (systems) the way we build our cities: over time, without a plan, on top of ruins

- Ellen Ullman