Linus Torvalds Quotes

Quotes by and about Linus Torvalds

(Continued from his main entry on the site.)

Torvalds: "I find the low-level details of how computers work really interesting, but if I had to care about user problems and people forgetting their passwords ... I don't know what I'd do. I'd probably turn to drugs and alcohol to dull the pain."

Torvalds: "I think any big project is about finding people you can trust, and really then depending on that trust. I don't want to micro-manage people."

Torvalds: "It seems that any time that people start discussing ... what consciousness is, otherwise sane and coherent people end up being just confused and crazy (example: Roger Penrose)."

Torvalds: "'The end justifies the means' ... is the stupidest saying in the history of man [and not just] because it has been used to make excuses for bad behavior [but because it] totally misses the point of everything. ... It's the means - the journey [that matters]. The end result is almost meaningless."

Torvalds: "I think it's very important to have cheap throwaway, literally throw aways ... that allow people to tinker. And if that means that 99 out of 100 [ventures] will ... gather dust ... that's fine if one of them made somebody realize [something]."

[Asked if there is any question he wishes he'd been asked in an interview:]
Torvalds: "Any particular question? No. That's not what I tend to find interesting - I enjoy the process, and the argument, and the flow of ideas of an interview [and] I don't think there's a 'perfect question,' much less a 'perfect answer that I wish somebody had asked me the question for.'"

Torvalds: "I don't have a 'message' to people. I never really did."

Torvalds: "While I am a computer guy, my heroes are still 'real scientists.'"