Bill Bryson

I have made a career of bumbling around places, stumbling on landmarks and generally being quite haphazard and shambolic about the way I go about things. ”

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. ”

To me, the greatest invention of my lifetime is the laptop computer and the fact that I can be working on a book and be in an airport lounge, in a hotel room, and continue working; I fire up my laptop, and I'm in exactly the same place I was when I left home - that, to me, is a miracle. ”

The world at night, for much of history, was a very dark place indeed. ”

America is a very seductive place in terms of lifestyle and comfort, but it wasn't for me. ”

Much as I resented having to grow up in Des Moines, it gave me a real appreciation for every place in the world that's not Des Moines. ”

I've never quite understood that feeling: that you arrive in a strange place, yet you want to have nothing but familiar experiences. ”

An awful lot of England is slowly eroding, in ways that I find really distressing, and an awful lot of it is the hedgerows... We're reaching the point where a lot of the English countryside looks just like Iowa - just kind of open space. ”

Open your refrigerator door, and you summon forth more light than the total amount enjoyed by most households in the 18th century. The world at night, for much of history, was a very dark place indeed. ”

Very little of what America does is actually bad, and I don't think it ever does anything anywhere that is intentionally bad. I mean, sometimes we make mistakes and bad judgments and kind of back the wrong regimes and things, but by and large what America does is really good. ”