The joke used to be that Perl code looked like an explosion in an apostrophe factory.
It's one of his well-known quotes.
https://quotefancy.com/quote/1497280/Larry-Wall-I-think-I-m-...
A homopipic / homeopathic language?
Similiia similibus curentur.
When you do, you appreciate the density of information.
When I read perl it's like I read a poem: to take a simple example, 'while/until' instead of 'while/while not' creates more beautiful code