Source of quote about UNIX as a virtual machine and C as a scripting language

Question

I recall a quote that goes something like this:

Unix is the universal virtual machine and C is its scripting language.

I am looking for the origin of this quote and the exact language. I vaguely remember Eric Raymond as the proximate source, but I can't find it in his writing.

Answer 1

The nearest quote I could find was 'it's perhaps best to think of C as a high-level assembler for the Unix virtual machine', found here

Edit: Perhaps you are referring to Eric S Raymond's book 'The Art Of Unix Programming'

Hope this helps, Best regards, Tom.