Life is choices, and they are relentless. No sooner have you made one choice than another is upon you.

There are times when you have sharp elbows, and people are trying to muscle you out of certain meetings - because then people could leak to the press that you had a role in certain decisions. I, at twenty-six, was very impatient and didn't know how to keep my powder dry. I was running a team of seventy-five people when I had never been a boss. I was the worst boss ever.

If the conversation people think is coming is the 'death panel' conversation, that's a total failure.

Just using a checklist requires [doctors] to embrace different values from ones we've had, like humility, discipline, teamwork.

Culture matters. Of course, if physicians are rewarded or penalized for their service and results, the culture will change. But the key values we doctors are being pressed to embrace are humility, teamwork, and discipline.

The evidence is that people who enter hospice don't have shorter lives. In many cases they are longer.

The battle of being mortal is the battle to maintain the integrity of one's life.