Bill Bryson quotes - page 6

In the countryside, litter doesn't have a friend. It doesn't have anybody who's saying, 'Wait a minute, this is really starting to get out of control.' (Bill Bryson)
Maine is wonderful. It can be very hard. I mean, if you look at the profile maps it doesn't look it, but somehow when you get out there it's really steep and hard. View quote
Bill Bryson
I'm not a natural story-teller. Put a keyboard in front of me and I'm fine, but stand me up in front of an audience and I'm actually quite shy and reserved. View quote
Bill Bryson
I always wanted to do a baseball book; I love baseball. The problem is that a very large part of my following is in non-baseball playing countries. View quote
Bill Bryson
I'm not funny in person. I mean I'm really not. I'm one of those people who always screw up anecdotes. View quote
Bill Bryson
I can wear a baseball cap; I am entitled to wear a baseball cap. I am genetically pre-disposed to wear a baseball cap, whereas most English people look wrong in a baseball cap. View quote
Bill Bryson
You don't need a science degree to understand about science. You just need to think about it. View quote
Bill Bryson
I just use my life story as a kind of device on which to hang comic observations. It's not my interest or instinct to tell the world anything pertinent about myself or my family. View quote
Bill Bryson
Where I grew up, in Des Moines, Iowa, there is hardly any downtown economic activity now. Everybody shops in malls - you don't find a sense of community in malls. View quote
Bill Bryson
Coming back to your native land after an absence of many years is a surprisingly unsettling business, a little like waking from a long coma. Time, you discover, has wrought changes that leave you feeling mildly foolish and out of touch. View quote
Bill Bryson
I hadn't realized quite how extraordinary Charles Lindbergh's achievement was in flying the Atlantic alone. He had never flown over open water before, but he flew straight to Dingle Bay in Ireland and then on to Paris, exactly as planned. (Bill Bryson)
I wish I could adjust my voice, but it's just what's happened to me. It's because I've lived abroad for a long time, and my wife is English and my kids all have English accents, and every voice I hear is English. I've never intentionally changed my accent at all. View quote
Bill Bryson
I can't fix the world. If you want to make a difference in life, you have to direct your energies in a focused way. View quote
Bill Bryson
I often feel I'm a disappointment to people because they expect me to be the guy in the books. When I sit next to someone at a dinner party I can see they expect me to be quick and witty, and I'm not at all. View quote
Bill Bryson
England was full of words I'd never heard before - streaky bacon, short back and sides, Belisha beacon, serviettes, high tea, ice-cream cornet. View quote
Bill Bryson
Cheapness is a great virtue. View quote
Bill Bryson
America is a very seductive place in terms of lifestyle and comfort, but it wasn't for me. View quote
Bill Bryson
America is a great disappointment to me. As I said in one of my books, other societies create civilisations; we build shopping malls. View quote
Bill Bryson
Britain still has the most reliably beautiful countryside of anywhere in the world. I would hate to be part of the generation that allowed that to be lost. View quote
Bill Bryson
All the things that are part of your heritage make you British - that makes this country what it is. It's part of your history. And here, unlike America, it's still living history. View quote
Bill Bryson
The first book I did - the first successful book - was a kind of a travel book, and publishers in Britain encouraged me to do more. (Bill Bryson)
There is the odd exception, like Albert Einstein, but as a breed, scientists tend not be very good at presenting themselves. View quote
Bill Bryson
In a funny way, nothing makes you feel more like a native of your own country than to live where nearly everyone is not. View quote
Bill Bryson
I don't want to go and start trying to make jokes in places like India, Tanzania or Iraq. Afghanistan is not a funny place. View quote
Bill Bryson
Of all the things I am not very good at, living in the real world is perhaps the most outstanding. I am constantly filled with wonder at the number of things that other people do without any evident difficulty that are pretty much beyond me. View quote
Bill Bryson