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Yes, the money could be better spent on Earth. But would it? Since when has money saved by government redlining been spent on education and cancer research? It is always squandered. Let's squander some on Mars. Let's go out and play.

Mary Roach

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Mary Roach
Age: 65
Born: 1959
Born: March 20
Author
Journalist
Medical Writer
Writer
Etna
New Hampshire
Earth
Mars
Government
Cancer
Better
Saved
Play
Spent
Always
Research
Would
Education
Zealotry
Since
Squandered
Money
Squander

More quotes by Mary Roach

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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
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Normally I object to strangers beaming force fields into my brain.
Mary Roach
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Instead, I quietly excused myself and went to the bar, to commune with spirits I know how to relate to.
Mary Roach
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The human head is of the same approximate size and weight as a roaster chicken. I have never before had occasion to make the comparison, for never before today have I seen a head in a roasting pan.
Mary Roach
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In 'Packing for Mars,' I tried to convey the importance of getting young people interested in science.
Mary Roach
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Life contains these things: leakage and wickage and discharge, pus and snot and slime and gleet. We are biology. We are reminded of this at the beginning and the end, at birth and at death. In between we do what we can to forget.
Mary Roach
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The writing is always the easy part, provided I can get the good material. It's the getting of the good material that's a challenge.
Mary Roach
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I've read plenty of amazing science pieces where the writers don't hang out in labs. I just have fun doing it. And I get rewarded for it I get gushy, especially when kids tell me they expected to be bored by my books, but weren't.
Mary Roach
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I dont fear death so much as I fear its prologues: loneliness, decrepitude, pain, debilitation, depression, senility. After a few years of those, I imagine death presents like a holiday at the beach.
Mary Roach
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You do not question an author who appears on the title page as T.V.N. Persaud, M.D., Ph.D., D.Sc., F.R.C.Path. (Lond.), F.F.Path. (R.C.P.I.), F.A.C.O.G.
Mary Roach
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Softball is the reason Washing Machines and Bleach are so popular. Don't think so? Just ask a softball Mom.
Mary Roach
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Sharing a room with a cadaver is only mildly different from being in a room alone. They are the same sort of company as people across from you on subways or in airport lounges, there but not there. Your eyes keep going back to them, for lack of anything more interesting to look at, and then you feel bad for staring.
Mary Roach
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Viagra does have a physiological effect, but it doesn't make women feel aroused. Nowadays, researchers are looking at drugs that affect the central nervous system rather than blood flow to the genitals.
Mary Roach
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My books are not really books theyre endless chains of distraction shoved inside a cover. Many of them begin at the search box of Pub Med, an Internet database of medical journal articles.
Mary Roach
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NASA might do well to adopt the Red Bull approach to branding and astronautics. Suddenly the man in the spacesuit is not an underpaid civil servant he's the ultimate extreme athlete. Red Bull knows how to make space hip.
Mary Roach
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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
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If you could really guarantee that the money would be spent on something more worthwhile, I'd say, absolutely, scrap the space program, but it never works that way.
Mary Roach
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Every mode of travel has its signature mental aberration.
Mary Roach
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In my experience, the most staunchly held views are based on ignorance or accepted dogma, not carefully considered accumulations of facts. The more you expose the intricacies and realtities of the situation, the less clear-cut things become.
Mary Roach
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The simplest strategy for bouts of noxious flatus is to not care. Or perhaps to take advantage of a gastroenterologist I know: get a dog. (To blame.)
Mary Roach