History repeats, but science reverberates.

It is hard to look at the tumor and not come away with the feeling that one has encountered a powerful monster in its infancy

I had seen cancer at a more cellular level as a researcher. The first time I entered the cancer ward, my first instinct was to withdraw from what was going on - the complexity, the death. It was a very bleak time.

Good physicians are rarely dispassionate. They agonize and self-doubt over patients.

Writing anything as an expert is really poisonous to the writing process, because you lose the quality of discovery.

There is a duality in recognising what an incredible disease it is - in terms of its origin, that it emerges out of a normal cell. It's a reminder of what a wonderful thing a normal cell is. In a very cold, scientific sense, I think a cancer cell is a kind of biological marvel.

I am a scientist and I am a physician. So I write papers.