Make something beautiful of your life.

Life, too, is like that. You live it forward, but understand it backward. It is only when you stop and look to the rear that you see the corpse caught under your wheel.

I joke, but I only half joke, that if you come to one of our hospitals missing a limb, no one will believe you till they get a CAT scan, MRI, or orthopedic consult.

My VIP patients often regret so many things on their deathbeds. They regret the bitterness they'll leave in people's hearts. They realize the no money, no church service, no eulogy, no funeral procession no matter how elaborate, can remove the legacy of a mean spirit.

There is a point when grief exceeds the human capacity to emote, and as a result one is strangely composed-

The bottom line: health care reform is about the patient, not about the physician.

He was teaching me how to die, just as he'd taught me how to live.