Mary Roach Quotes

The sexual parts are not only vivid examples of the body's dominion; they are also apertures whose damp emissions and ammoniac smells testify to the mysterious putrefaction of the body.

The average human being spends three years of life going to the toilet, though the average human being with no physical toilet to go to probably does his or her best to spend less. It is a human behavior that is as revealing as any other about human nature, but only if it can be released from the social straitjacket of nicety.

One of the misfortunes of our time is that in getting rid of false shame we have killed off so much real shame as well.

It's always uncomfortable for me when I take off my shirt. No one else is taking their shift off. Why is everyone else in these movies bundled up in layers of clothing and I'm taking my clothes off all the time?

Girls don't poop, so don't claim you do. You can fart - because farting is funny - but we don't want to know that you poop.

Man, an ingenious assembly of portable plumbing.

I think we always view people who make us feel uncomfortable and appear to intrude on our middle-class cozy space, we view them with, if not hostility, at least suspicion, discomfort, embarrassment.

I hate to admit this, but before we had a baby I was kind of weirded out by breastfeeding. It looked strange, and I was always like, 'Look away! Ignore it, ignore the boobs in the room, move along, nothing to see here!'

I never want to be a showoff or attention getter or something that, truthfully, is kind of repulsive to me, but I get uncomfortable.

But I found out that bones with flesh are more interesting than bones without.

I can't bear kissing scenes.

We are not outraged by blood. We see blood all the time. Blood is pervasive in movies, television, and video games. Yet, we are outraged by the fact that one openly discusses bleeding from an area that we try to claim ownership over.

I love the fact we do break taboos.

Humanity's always been weird at heart. Look at how societies form, rituals, practices, even rock n' roll. Humanity really is dark and twisted.

This human body is very much a vehicle that's used to the constraints of time but once the body is old and used up our minds go into an eternal space.

I personally am not so obsessed about immortality for myself. The human body has been designed that way, obsolescence is OK.

Flesh goes on pleasuring us, and humiliating us, right to the end.

The body of a young woman is God's greatest achievement...Of course, He could have built it to last longer but you can't have everything.

Life is just the time between crapping yourself.

I set out to be a cross between Lenny Bruce and Robert the Bruce - my main thrust was the body and its functions and malfunctions - the absurdity of the thing.

I suppose the difference between baby people and me is that I do not consider smiling while farting 'holding up your end of a conversation.

It would be nice if people said, God bless you not just when you sneezed but also when you farted.

Craziness was considered funny, like all other things that were in reality frightening and profoundly shameful.

God made the human body like a machine with built-in obsolescence.

In the composition of the human frame there is a good deal of inflammable matter, however dormant it may lie for a time.