Memory changes as a person matures.

Like countless first-year medical students, immersed in the symptoms of one disease after another, I am alert to the tingles and pangs, the throbs and quivers of my mortal body, each one of which is potentially a sign of the end.

Great books are the ones that are urgent, life-changing, the ones that crack open the reader’s skull and heart.

No matter how brilliant or accomplished they are, there is something emasculating for men in being pitted against a woman. It is even more true in creative fields already considered to be "squishy" and feminine, and it's a big problem because great women have been left off the record.

Widowers marry again because it makes their lives easier. Widows often don't, because it makes their lives harder. [p. 61]

I've always thought of wholeness and integration as necessary myths. We're gragmented beings who cement ourselves together, but there are always cracks. Living with the cracks is part of being, well, reasonably healthy.

Good books, written by men or women, are ones in which you lose consciousness of the person writing the sentences.