Bill Bryson

“It is still a fairly astounding notion to consider that atoms are mostly empty space, and that the solidity we experience all…

— Bill Bryson

I turned to my own bunk and examined it with a kind of appalled fascination. If the mattress stains were anything to…

— Bill Bryson

Australians are very unfair in this way. They spend half of any conversation insisting that the country's dangers are vastly overrated and…

— Bill Bryson

We used to build civilizations. Now we build shopping malls.

— Bill Bryson

“He called it a mastodon (which means, a touch unexpectedly, “nipple-teeth”).”

— Bill Bryson

For a long time, I'd been vaguely fascinated by the idea that Charles Lindbergh flew the Atlantic and Babe Ruth hit 60…

— Bill Bryson

“Robert G. Elliott was not a murderous person by nature, but he proved, no doubt to his own surprise, to be rather…

— Bill Bryson

“English bond is a style in which one row is made up entirely of stretchers (the long side of bricks) and the…

— Bill Bryson

Before, prior to. There is no difference between these two except length and a certain affectedness on the part of 'prior to.'…

— Bill Bryson

Yes, U.S. travelers dress better. The British are always so conspicuous in hot climates. They don't seem to wear shorts. American men…

— Bill Bryson

“I remember reading once how some Stone Age Indians from the Brazilian rain forest with no knowledge or expectation of a world…

— Bill Bryson

“The 1920s was a great time for reading altogether—very possibly the peak decade for reading in American life. Soon it would be…

— Bill Bryson

“These Cro-Magnon people were identical to us: they had the same physique, the same brain, the same looks. And, unlike all previous…

— Bill Bryson

“In Flemish bond, headers alternate with stretchers from brick to brick. Flemish bond is much more popular than English, not because it…

— Bill Bryson

You can be a scientist and believe in god: the two can go hand in hand.

— Bill Bryson

Book tours are really kind of fun. You get to stay in nice hotels, you are driven everywhere in big silver cars,…

— Bill Bryson

“Shakespeare 'never owned a book,' a writer for the New York Times gravely informed readers in one doubting article in 2002. The…

— Bill Bryson

What an odd thing tourism is. You fly off to a strange land, eagerly abandoning all the comforts of home, and then…

— Bill Bryson

Suddenly, in the space of a moment, I realized what it was that I loved about Britain--which is to say, all of…

— Bill Bryson

“American airmen, when they got to the front, mostly flew in borrowed, patched-up planes provided by the Allies, leaving them in the…

— Bill Bryson

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…

— Bill Bryson

“Dogs don't like me. It is a simple law of the universe, like gravity. I am not exaggerating when I say that…

— Bill Bryson

18th century scientists, the French in particular, seldom did things simply if an absurdly demanding alternative was available.

— Bill Bryson

One of the brilliant things about Britain is the way you've managed to save old things but to keep using them -…

— Bill Bryson

“Australians are the biggest gamblers on the planet – one of the more arresting statistics I saw was that the country has…

— Bill Bryson