My approach to being a self-taught programmer was to find out who was smart and who would be helpful, and these were - these are both men and women. And without learning from my co-workers, I never could've gone on in the profession as long as I did.

The questions I am often asked about my career tend to concentrate not on how one learns to code but how a woman does.

Computer programming has always been a self-taught, maverick occupation.

Writing is a very isolating occupation.

Creativity itself doesn't care at all about results - the only thing it craves is the process. Learn to love the process and let whatever happens next happen, without fussing too much about it. Work like a monk, or a mule, or some other representative metaphor for diligence. Love the work. Destiny will do what it wants with you, regardless.

Happiness is not an ideal of reason, but of imagination.

Anyone who has an imagination can write a book - it's cheap to do - but movies are big money.

Food to me, in one word, is 'creativity' or 'expression.' It's simply, 'This is who I am at this point in time, and this is what I want to cook for you.'