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" It is interesting to come across people who feel that a ghost communicating via a spell-checker is less far-fetched than a software glitch. "
Mary Roach
Ghost
Feel
Come
Related Quotes:
" I love words, but I also love finding out that there is a word for something that you've experienced but didn't know there was a word for. Like 'toothpack' - that is a word for when you eat biscuits or cookies and you get that annoying layer of chewed substance on your molars that you kind of have to pick out. "
Mary Roach
Cookies
Finding
Know
" Though it's harder to justify the use of a cadaver for practicing nose jobs than it is for practicing coronary bypasses, it is justifiable nonetheless. Cosmetic surgery exists, for better or for worse, and it's important, for the sake of those who undergo it, that the surgeons who do it are able to do it well. "
Mary Roach
Nose
Better
Well
" The broader the topic, the easier it is, not only to fill a book, but to set the bar pretty high for really great stuff. "
Mary Roach
High
Pretty
Book
" People don't appreciate their intestines until something goes wrong. But I always hope that people gain a little appreciation for their guts. "
Mary Roach
Appreciation
Appreciate
Hope
" Follow your instincts. Do the kind of writing you love to do and do best. 'Stiff' was an oddball book - I mean, a funny book about cadavers? - and I worried that it would be too unconventional. In the end, that's what has made it a success, I think. "
Mary Roach
Think
Best
Book
" Animals' taste systems are specialized for the niche they occupy in the environment. That includes us. As hunters and foragers of the dry savannah, our earliest forebears evolved a taste for important but scarce nutrients: salt and high-energy fats and sugars. That, in a nutshell, explains the widespread popularity of junk food. "
Mary Roach
Important
Animals
Environment
" To me, death is dark, pain, grief. "
Mary Roach
Grief
Pain
Dark
" Every crazy fad from the 1800s comes back or they never go away. It's like fashion, like everything's already been invented, and somebody stumbles onto it and people will always, always be looking for an answer for some vague illness they can't get a diagnosis for. "
Mary Roach
Crazy
Fashion
Looking
" Dead people never seem to address the obvious - the things you'd think they'd be bursting to talk about, and the things all of us not-yet-dead are madly curious about. Such as: 'Hey, where are you now? What do you do all day? What's it feel like being dead? Can you see me? Even when I'm on the toilet? Would you cut that out?' "
Mary Roach
Me
Day
You
" For the most part, if somebody approaches me and says, 'I'd like to interview you,' who am I to say no, when I spend all my days going, 'Hello, you don't know me. I'd like to ask you some questions. Do you have a little time?' "
Mary Roach
Say
Know
Me
" I've been writing full-time since about 1984 - mostly magazine features and columns. "
Mary Roach
Been
Magazine
Writing
" A space station is a rangy monstrosity, a giant erector set built by a madman. "
Mary Roach
Madman
Space Station
Space
" There are three kinds of people in this world: 1) People who make lists, 2) People who don't make lists, and 3) People who carve tiny Nativity scenes out of pecan hulls. I'm sorry, there isn't really a third category; it's just that a workable list needs a minimum of three items, I feel. "
Mary Roach
People
Feel
World
" Eighty percent of flavor comes from your nose, including a set of internal nostrils. When you chew food and hold it in your mouth, the gases that are released goes into these nostrils. People who wolf their food are missing some of the flavor. "
Mary Roach
Wolf
You
Mouth
" Day by day, I'm kind of a bore. "
Mary Roach
Bore
Kind
Day
" Flatulence peaks twice a day... five hours after lunch and five hours after dinner. "
Mary Roach
Hours
Day
Dinner
" Any time you can take a book a little beyond the realm of pure entertainment, I think it's a good thing. But I don't really have it on my to-do list when I write a book. It just evolves naturally during the process of immersing yourself in a subject. "
Mary Roach
Yourself
You
Time
" You won't see me writing about particle physics, or even planetary geology, or chemistry. I practically failed chemistry, and if I had to write a book in any of those areas, I don't think it would go well. "
Mary Roach
Book
Chemistry
Me
" It seems odd to think of tasting without any perceptive experience, but you are doing it right now. Humans have taste receptor cells in the gut, the voice box, the upper esophagus. But only the tongue's receptors report to the brain. "
Mary Roach
Experience
Tongue
Think
" I don't read good books anymore, it seems; I just buy them and put them on the shelf and every now and then walk over and pet them. I'm like the optimistic dieter who fills her closet with clothes two sizes too small and dreams of the day she can wear them. I know just what I want to do when I retire. "
Mary Roach
Small
Good
Pet
" Science is you! It's your head, it's your dog, it's your iPhone - it's the world. How do you see that as boring? If it's boring, it's because you're learning it from a textbook. "
Mary Roach
Dog
World
See
" Spacewalking is a little like rock climbing in that everything, including and especially oneself, must be tethered or docked at all times. If you forget to tether a tool, it's gone. Ditto yourself. "
Mary Roach
Rock
You
Everything
" I'm a science goober. "
Mary Roach
Science
" To me, NASA is kind of the magical kingdom. I was sort of a geek, and you go there, and there are just these wondrously strange things and people. "
Mary Roach
Magical
Me
Kind
" To keep your he-man jaw muscles from smashing your precious teeth, the only set you have, the body evolved an automated braking system faster and more sophisticated than anything on a Lexus. The jaw knows its own strength. The faster and more recklessly you close your mouth, the less force the muscles are willing to apply. "
Mary Roach
Strength
You
Precious
" I could have had a session of defecography, which is a diagnostic test in which X-rays are taken to assess anatomical problems occurring during the process of defecation. I gave it the briefest of thoughts before recognizing that this is beyond the pale - even for me. "
Mary Roach
Me
Test
Thoughts
" I make lists to keep my anxiety level down. If I write down 15 things to be done, I lose that vague, nagging sense that there are an overwhelming number of things to be done, all of which are on the brink of being forgotten. "
Mary Roach
Lose
Anxiety
Forgotten
" A fine book, in the perfect setting, when there's all the time in the world to read it: Life holds greater joys, but none come to mind just now. "
Mary Roach
Time
Mind
Life
" When I was 16, I had a job on the cleaning crew at a local hospital. I wore a pink uniform and cleaned bathrooms and buffed the hallway linoleum. Oddly, I don't recall hating the job. I recall getting choked up at the end of the summer when I went to turn in my uniform and say goodbye to the ladies. "
Mary Roach
Job
Uniform
End
" All of my books tend to be about things going on in labs that you wouldn't really expect. "
Mary Roach
You
Things
Going