This is a thread to collect together interesting articles by a variety of authors explaining what they think is special about Lisp. Please add your suggestions to this thread.
Ron Garrett on Rondam Ramblings
Why Lisp?: “Lisp is … a fundamentally different way of thinking about what programming is.”
Paul Graham on PaulGraham.com
What made Lisp different : “When McCarthy designed Lisp in the late 1950s, it was a radical departure from existing languages … it embodied nine new ideas …”
If Lisp is so great : “If Lisp is so great, why don’t more people use it? …”
David Johnson-Davies (me) on Lispology.com
Using different programming styles in Lisp : “One of the things I especially like about Lisp is that it gives you a choice of being able to program in a variety of different programming styles. …”
Peter Norvig on Norvig.com
A Retrospective on Paradigms of AI Programming : “Is Lisp Still Unique? Or at Least Different? …”