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 More Quotes by Bill Bryson More Quotes From Bill Bryson It is not as if farming brought a great improvement in living standards either. A typical hunter-gatherer enjoyed a more varied diet and consumed more protein and calories than settled people, and took in five times as much viatmin C as the average person today. Bill Bryson typical average people Think of a single problem confronting the world today. Disease, poverty, global warming... If the problem is going to be solved, it is science that is going to solve it. Scientists tend to be unappreciated in the world at large, but you can hardly overstate the importance of the work they do. If anyone ever cures cancer, it will be a guy with a science degree. Or a woman with a science degree. Bill Bryson cancer science thinking Germans are flummoxed by humor, the Swiss have no concept of fun, the Spanish think there is nothing at all ridiculous about eating dinner at midnight, and the Italians should never, ever have been let in on the invention of the motor car. Bill Bryson sarcastic fun inspirational In a funny way, nothing makes you feel more like a native of your own country than to live where nearly everyone is not. Bill Bryson feels country way It is unthinkable to have a British countryside that doesn't have actual functioning farmers riding tractors, cows in fields, things like that. Bill Bryson riding cows fields 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 successful book firsts For a long time it puzzled me how something so expensive, so leading edge, could be so useless. And then it occurred to me that a computer is a stupid machine with the ability to do incredibly smart things, while computer programmers are smart people with the ability to do incredibly stupid things. They are, in short, a perfect match. Bill Bryson smart technology stupid I really enjoy going to a library and spending the day doing research - to me that is the most pleasurable part of writing the science book. Bill Bryson library writing book Not writing the same kind of book over and over again is to me the real pleasure of what I do. Bill Bryson real writing book You can be a scientist and believe in god: the two can go hand in hand. Bill Bryson two believe hands It's hard not to be kind of pessimistic about human beings generally, because we do tend to mess things up. If you just look at the history of extinctions, we've killed off an awful lot of animals - and I don't think we're doing a very good job of looking after the planet. Bill Bryson animal jobs thinking Being a pessimist is just such a gloomy way of looking at things, so I have to hope for the best - life wouldn't be worth living if we didn't have hope. And I also do think that human beings often do do wonderful, correct, brilliant things. So, on balance, I'd like to be optimistic about the future. Bill Bryson optimistic balance thinking She is willing to listen, willing to explain and willing to say what she thinks about things, she knows how to negotiate with people. The question is whether people will negotiate with her. Bill Bryson world I've been writing all these books that have been largely autobiographical and yet, really, they don't tell you anything about me. 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. Bill Bryson myself me family life 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. Bill Bryson grow me appreciation world In any area of human endeavour, there is going to be mediocrity. You're going to find people who get money that they shouldn't get. Bill Bryson find you money people I'm a great believer that you had to do everything you've done to have got to where you are. Bill Bryson everything great you done I once joked in a book that there are three things you can't do in life. You can't beat the phone company, you can't make a waiter see you until he is ready to see you, and you can't go home again. Bill Bryson you home life book I grew up, really, in the days before air conditioning. So I can remember what it was like to be really hot, for instance, and I can remember what it was like when your barber shop and your local stores weren't air conditioned, so it was hot when you went in them and they propped the doors open. Bill Bryson you hot doors remember I don't plan to write another science book, but I don't plan not to. I do enjoy writing histories, and taking subjects that are generally dull and trying to make them interesting. Bill Bryson enjoy writing science book
