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" To me, death is dark, pain, grief. "
Mary Roach
Grief
Pain
Dark
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" We exist in this weirdly schizo culture, where sex is everywhere in the media, and yet, at the same time, you don't sit down and have a conversation about what you did in bed last night with your friends. Despite the ubiquity of sex, it's still a taboo when it comes to day-to-day conversation. "
Mary Roach
Media
Night
Time
" 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
" When someone tells me, 'Oh, we have so many problems on Earth; space exploration costs too much money,' I say, 'I absolutely agree with you. But I still hope we do it.' "
Mary Roach
Earth
Money
Problems
" 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
" 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
" 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
" 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
" 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
" 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
" In 'Packing for Mars,' I tried to convey the importance of getting young people interested in science. "
Mary Roach
Mars
Science
Young
" 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
" 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
" I used to do my best thinking while staring out airplane windows. The seat-back video system put a stop to that. Now I sit and watch old' Friends' and 'Everybody Loves Raymond' episodes. Walking is good, but here again, technology has interfered. I like to listen to iTunes while I walk home. I guess I don't think anymore. "
Mary Roach
Best
Walk
Technology
" 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
" 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
" Meteorite hunting is not for wimps. The best places to look are also the coldest and windiest. You need very old ice, and you need wind, lots of it, strong and unrelenting. Antarctica fits the bill. "
Mary Roach
Best
Hunting
Look
" I have not eaten a lot of insects. I ate a termite in Africa, but it was on a bet. It was a soldier termite. It was alive, and I don't really recommend the live soldier termite as something you want to start with if you're going to start exploring eating insects. "
Mary Roach
Soldier
Live
You
" Astronauts are like these mythic legends, but really, they are just regular people, people who wear chinos. "
Mary Roach
Like
People
Astronauts
" 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
" LOL is rarely OL, or even really L. A real out-loud laugh - not the forced social variety, which is closer to barking than laughing - is uncommon among adults. "
Mary Roach
Variety
Real
Laugh
" 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
" 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
" Day by day, I'm kind of a bore. "
Mary Roach
Bore
Kind
Day
" 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
" 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'm not a quick wit. I'm only funny on paper. I mean, I'm not totally humorless! It's just that in person, I'm not quite the way I am on paper. "
Mary Roach
Funny
Way
Person
" Weightlessness was unbelievable. It's physical euphoria: Nothing about you has any weight. You don't realize that you are weighed down all the time by yourself, and your organs, and your head. Your arms weigh down your shoulders. In space simulation, you get to fly like Superman! You're hanging in the air! It's the coolest thing. "
Mary Roach
Time
You
Yourself
" 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
" 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
" 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