Postwar U.S. was the world's leader in science and technology. The investment in science research was staggering.

I wanted to explore cancer not just biologically, but metaphorically. The idea that tuberculosis in the 19th century possessed the same kind of frightening and decaying quality was very interesting to me, and it seemed that one could explore the idea that every age defined its own illness.

There is a very moving and ancient connection between cancer and depression.

Postwar U.S. was the world's leader in science and technology. The investment in science research was staggering.

I think the way we think about cancer, the way we treat cancer, has dramatically changed in the last century. There is an enormous amount of options that a physician can provide today, right down from curing patients, treating patients or providing patients with psychic solace or pain relief.

One swallow is a coincidence, but two swallows make summer.

This was yet another colonial fascination: to create the conditions of misery in a population, then subject it to social or medical experimentation.