...a disgruntled reflection on my own life as a sort of desperate improvisation in which I was constantly trying to make something coherent from conflicting elements to fit rapidly changing settings.

A suprising number of physicians manage to continue to care about persons even after the rigors of medical training.

Of any stopping place in life, it is good to ask whether it will be a good place from which to go on as well as a good place to remain.

Improvisation can be either a last resort or an established way of evoking creativity.

As you get up in the morning, as you make decisions, as you spend money, make friends, make commitments, you are creating a piece of art called your life.

... as we age we have not only to readdress earlier developmental crises but also somehow to find the way to three affirmations that may seem to conflict. ... We have to affirm our own life. We have to affirm our own death. And we have to affirm love, both given and received.

The past empowers the present, and the sweeping footsteps leading to this present mark the pathways to the future.