Further, another way to look at it is, declarative languages specify output, imperative languages focus on the steps to generate outputs. In imperative code, I'm worrying about how instead of what. In declarative code, I'm worried about what instead of how. As in all things, neither of these statements will be absolutes - there are situations and times where a declarative language user will worry about how the query planner will execute, and there are times where an imperative language user will write very much declarative code.