“Don’t just buy a new video game, make one. Don’t just download an app, help design it. Don’t just play on your phone, program it.”

“Whether we’re fighting climate change or going to space, everything is moved forward by computers, and we don’t have enough people who can code. Teaching young people to code early on can help build skills and confidence and energize the classroom with learning-by-doing opportunities. I learned how to fly a hot air balloon when I was 30,000 feet up and my life was in the balance: you can learn skills at any age but why wait when we can teach everyone to code now!”

“Learning to code is tremendously empowering. It lets you go from just being a consumer of technology to being a producer of it. When you make that transformation, you realize that rather than settling for what someone else tells you is possible, you have the power to create whole new technological possibilities.”

“Creating things with your hands, or creating code, creating programs, are just different ways to express creativity.”

“Our civilization is experiencing unprecedented changes across many realms, largely due to the rapid advancement of information technology. The ability to code and understand the power of computing is crucial to success in today’s hyper-connected world.”

“Our programmers are our artists. They write beautiful code that millions of our travelers start to play with, to use, to help them travel better. It’s a profound sense of power and satisfaction to have your work affect so many, so quickly, across the globe.”

“Computer science needs to be part of the core curriculum – like algebra, biology, physics, or chemistry. We need all schools to teach it, not just 10%.”

“Learning how to code and program computers when I was a kid was one of the best choices I made growing up. By writing code, I learned how to bring my dreams to life, how to budget, and how to build stuff. Whatever path you choose in life – being an artist, an engineer, a lawyer, a teacher, or even a politician, you will give yourself a huge leg up if you learn how to code.”

“I think that great programming is not all that dissimilar to great art. Once you start thinking in concepts of programming it makes you a better person…as does learning a foreign language, as does learning math, as does learning how to read.”

“I think if someone had told me that software is really about humanity, that it’s really about helping people by using computer technology, it would have changed my outlook a lot earlier.”

“Kids who understand code are at the highest level of literacy in the 21st century. This will give all kids the tools to move from consumers to creators, enabling them for huge success.”

“To prepare humanity for the next 100 years, we need more of our children to learn computer programming skills, regardless of their future profession. Along with reading and writing, the ability to program is going to define what an educated person is.”

“One hundred years ago, people were faced with the choice of learning to read or remaining illiterate laborers who would be left behind as have-nots in a rapidly modernizing world. In the coming century, being able to command a world that will be thoroughly computerized will set apart those who can live successfully in the future from those who will be utterly left behind.”

“All of today’s kids will need—along with reading, writing, and arithmetic—a basic understanding of computation and the role that it plays across a wide range of disciplines. Coding is engaging and empowering. It’s a necessary 21st Century skill.”

“Programming allows you to think about thinking, and while debugging you learn learning.”

“The programmers of tomorrow are the wizards of the future. You’re going to look like you have magic powers compared to everybody else.”

“I believe technology should give us superpowers. Everyone should have the opportunity to learn to think, analyze, and create with technology.”