Jeffrey Eugenides

The Pulitzer isn't a physical object. You can't hold it in your hand. You get some money ($7,500 in my day), and you get a little Tiffany's paperweight with your name on it and the image of Joseph Pulitzer suspended in the crystal. When people see my 'Pulitzer' (I keep it in my sock drawer), they are pretty amazed at its meagerness.

American Novelist

Hod Lipson

When it costs you the same amount of manufacturing effort to make advanced robotic parts as it does to manufacture a paperweight, that really changes things in a profound way.

American Scientist

Michael Korda

When I started work at Simon & Schuster in 1958, each of us got a bronze paperweight on which was written, in raised type, 'Give the reader a break,' Richard E. Simon.

English Novelist

Ray Bradbury

I have my favorite cat, who is my paperweight, on my desk while I am writing.

American Writer

The primary purpose of a paperweight is to hold down papers, often in offices or windy conditions.

Keeps Papers Still

Paperweights can also be ornamental, with beautiful designs, serving as a desk accessory.

Decorative Piece

They can be made from different materials, such as glass, stone, or metal, often reflecting quality.

Material Variety

In a metaphorical sense, 'paperweight' can describe an object that has lost its main function.

Metaphorical Use

Using 'paperweight' to describe broken items is casual and may suggest frustration.

Informal Speech

The term can imply an object is no longer valuable or useful, despite possibly looking expensive.

Implying Worthlessness

 they are a step-by-step way to solve a problem, and as you probably know, computers excel at step-by-step processes. A computer without an algorithm is basically an expensive paperweight. And since computers are such a pervasive part of everyday life, algorithms are everywhere.

Inside OKCupid: The math...

 Station this is a paperweight with the logo of NASA on it and no one under 30 even understands why paper weights exist and many of them don't even know what one is this is cool on this surface is a

Inside Neil deGrasse...

 Because without chemistry, what is an information superhighway that we love, would just be a really expensive, shiny paperweight. Chemistry enables all of these layers.