I don’t know of many people who’ve done sex research with an eye toward people saying sex is bad for you, except for the promiscuity and cervical cancer link – which is actually a valid discovery. – Mary Roach
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
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
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
There are fast chewers and slow chewers, long chewers and short chewers, right-chewing people and left-chewing people. Some of us chew straight up and down, and others chew side-to-side, like cows. Your oral processing habits are a physiological fingerprint. – Mary Roach
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
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
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
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
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
I believe that not everything we humans encounter in our lives can be neatly and convincingly tucked away inside the orderly cabinetry of science. – Mary Roach
There are people who would love to spend their last ten years, or five years, or whatever it is, on the surface of Mars. – Mary Roach
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
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
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
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
Pet foods come in a variety of flavors because that’s what humans like, and we assume our pets like what we like. We’re wrong. – Mary Roach
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
In ‘Packing for Mars,’ I tried to convey the importance of getting young people interested in science. – Mary Roach
All the clothes in my closet are Oakland, California, clothes. You can’t wear those anywhere else. The barometric pressure drops and then where are you? – Mary Roach
I spend a lot of my time on the phone, pestering people. ‘What’s new in your lab? Can I come visit your lab? When can I come visit your lab?’ I’m basically a professional pesterer. – Mary Roach
Ultimately, the problem is that sex is perceived as a personal, intimate thing, not in the realm of science. But that’s not true. It’s physiology; it’s anatomy. It deserves to be studied. – Mary Roach
All of my books tend to be about things going on in labs that you wouldn’t really expect. – Mary Roach
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
Every now and then, someone will tell me that one of my books has made them laugh out loud. I never believe them because: a.) my books don’t make me laugh out loud; and b.) sometimes I have said this to a writer, when really what I meant was, ‘Your book made me smile appreciatively.’ – Mary Roach
