If I am hungry, that is a material problem; if someone else is hungry, that is a spiritual problem.

There is nothing wrong with underlining personal agency, but there is something unfair about using personal responsibility as a basis for assigning blame while simultaneously denying those who are being blamed the opportunity to exert agency in their lives

You can't have public health without working with the public sector. You can't have public education without working with the public sector in education.

Again, conventional Catholicism does not much appeal to me.

The model of the teaching hospital, which links research to teaching and service is what's missing in global health.

Since I do not believe that there should be different recommendations for people living in the Bronx and people living in Manhattan, I am uncomfortable making different recommendations for my patients in Boston and in Haiti.

I think that looking forward it's easy to imagine more constructive help for Haiti.