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" 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
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" 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
" 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
" 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
" 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
" The Internet is a boon for hypochondriacs like me. "
Mary Roach
Internet
Me
Boon
" I'm one of those goobers who comes out of the polling place actually wearing the 'I VOTED' sticker on my jacket. "
Mary Roach
Who
Jacket
Out
" One of the maddening ironies of writing books is that it leaves so little time for reading others'. My bedside is piled with books, but it's duty reading: books for book research, books for review. The ones I pine for are off on a shelf downstairs. "
Mary Roach
Research
Book
Time
" 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
" 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 think by and large, humans prefer to think of themselves as minds from the neck up. We don't really like to think of ourselves as another animal, another digesting, excreting, mating, snoring, sleeping kind of sack of guts. I don't think we like that. I think we'd rather not be reminded of it. "
Mary Roach
Animal
Sleeping
Think
" Everybody is going to die, so people are enthralled by the possibility that they don't have to completely die, that there is something that comes afterward. It's like if you're going to France for the summer, you're going to read up on it. Everyone just wants to know where they're going, or if they're going anywhere. "
Mary Roach
You
People
Know
" In 'Packing for Mars,' I tried to convey the importance of getting young people interested in science. "
Mary Roach
Mars
Science
Young
" 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
" Flatulence peaks twice a day... five hours after lunch and five hours after dinner. "
Mary Roach
Hours
Day
Dinner
" Fletcherizing is gross. I tried it once. I tried to go until it's all liquid, and it just creeps you out to be focusing so much on your chewing. "
Mary Roach
Just
Tried
You
" People are surprisingly off put just by saliva, the substance that you carry around in your mouth. You swallow it. You have no objection to it. But then it leaves your body, and you're just revolted. So it - that - just that right there to me is a fascinating thing. "
Mary Roach
Body
Me
Mouth
" My husband recently made me try on a bikini. A bikini is not so much a garment as a cloth-based reminder that your parts have been migrating all these years. My waist, I realized that day in the dressing room, has completely disappeared beneath my rib cage, which now rests directly on my hips. I'm exhibiting continental drift in reverse. "
Mary Roach
Me
Try
Now
" 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
" A space station is a rangy monstrosity, a giant erector set built by a madman. "
Mary Roach
Madman
Space Station
Space
" 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
" Most of us pass our lives never once laying eyes on our own organs, the most precious and amazing things we own. Until something goes wrong, we barely give them thought. This seems strange to me. How is it that we find Christina Aguilera more interesting than the inside of our own bodies? "
Mary Roach
Thought
Amazing
Eyes
" Bodily fluids and solids are universally the most disgusting things we as human beings can come upon, but as long as they are inside us, it's part of you. "
Mary Roach
Long
You
Us
" 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
" I talk to a lot of people who, when you try to sum them up in a couple of sentences, seem like they must be insane. "
Mary Roach
Try
You
Up
" For the scientists, they're kind of puzzled and pleased that somebody finds their work interesting. It makes it fun for me. I feel like I've sort of turned over a stone that hasn't been turned over. "
Mary Roach
Feel
Fun
Interesting
" Saliva has antibacterial properties. It also has things called nerve growth factor, skin growth factor, histatins which help with wound closure. So when you see an animal licking a wound or even a mom kissing a child's boo-boo, there's some, there's some good science behind why one might do this. "
Mary Roach
Animal
Mom
Help
" Most of the people who are engaged in the subjects that I look into are pretty interesting. Whether its sex researchers or someone who's devoted their career to saliva or somebody who does research with cadavers, there's an inherent fascination in the subject matter of their work. "
Mary Roach
Work
Research
People
" 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
" When I was a kid, I hated everything. I was really skinny, and I'd have a milkshake with an egg in it. Growing up, I ate, like, five different foods. I was not an adventurous eater. But as soon as I left home, that all changed and from that point on, I've been a pretty enthusiastic eater of new and strange food. "
Mary Roach
Growing
Strange
Home
" If ergonomists have their way, future products won't be built for some hypothetical average person but will conform to the biomechanical needs of whatever particular human body happens to come into contact with them. "
Mary Roach
Human
Way
Will