-a whole world can lie before someone, if love is there when one wakes.

And here in this room, I re-experience the memories again and again it is how wisdom comes and how we shape our future.

It's a funny thing about names, how they become a part of someone.

I've always been interested in medicine and was pleased when my brother became a doctor. But after thinking seriously about that field, I realized that what intrigued me was not the science, not the chemistry or biology of medicine, but the narrative - the story of each patient, each illness.

Time goes on, and your life is still there, and you have to live it. After a while you remember the good things more often than the bad. Then, gradually, the empty silent parts of you fill up with sounds of talking and laughter again, and the jagged edges of sadness are softened by memories.

Mama was crying, and the rain made it seem as if the whole world was crying.

I was a sidelines child: never class president, never team captain, never the one with the most valentines in my box.