Quotes from Dennis Ritchie

C was already implemented on several quite different machines and OSs, Unix was already being distributed on the PDP-11, but the portability of the whole system was new.

Obviously, the person who had most influence on my career was Ken Thompson.

The kind of programming that C provides will probably remain similar absolutely or slowly decline in usage, but relatively, JavaScript or its variants, or XML, will continue to become more central.

At MIT, mostly what I did was documentation. I sort of read things. Wrote some descriptions of various aspects of the file system. Did not really do very much programming at all. At least on Multics.

C is quirky, flawed, and an enormous success.

A language that doesn't have everything is actually easier to program in than some that do

A program designed for inputs from people is usually stressed beyond breaking point by computer-generated inputs.

The visible things that have come from the group have been the Plan 9 system and Inferno, but I hasten to say that the ideas and the work have come from colleagues.

... with proper design, the features come cheaply. This approach is arduous, but continues to succeed.