And I find chopsticks frankly distressing. Am I alone in thinking it odd that a people ingenious enough to invent paper, gunpowder, kites and any number of other useful objects, and who have a noble history extending back 3,000 years haven't yet worked out that a pair of knitting needles is no way to capture food?
Bill BrysonA world without newspapers or a world where the newspapers are purely electronic and you read them on a screen is not a very appealing world.
Bill BrysonIt is always quietly thrilling to find yourself looking at a world you know well but have never seen from such an angle before.
Bill BrysonEntirely incidentally, a little-known fact about Shakespeare is that his father moved to Stratford-upon-Avon from a nearby village shortly before his son's birth. Had he not done so, the Bard of Avon would instead be known as the rather less ringing Bard of Snitterfield.
Bill BrysonRomans park their cars the way I would park if I had just spilled a beaker of hydrochloric acid on my lap.
Bill BrysonI can't fix the world. If you want to make a difference in life, you have to direct your energies in a focused way.
Bill BrysonIf you go out on the Appalachian Trail, you have to bring so much more equipment - a tent, sleeping bag - but if you go hiking in England, or Europe, generally, towns and villages are near enough together at the end of the day you can always go to a nice little inn and have a hot bath and something to drink.
Bill Bryson