“As soon as we conform anything to language, weve changed it. Use a word and youve altered the world. The poets know this. Its what they try so hard to avoid.”

“In people like us, the craving is as strong as the craving for food or water, the yearning for touch or light or love. I was looking for something--a diversion, an occupation, an unwavering force--...”

“I don't want to be movie-star famous. I want to move people with my writing.”

“I'm a craftsman type of teacher. I don't like the thematic type of teaching that takes place in a lot of colleges.”

“In medical school, you're taught to write in this convoluted, Latinate way. I knew the vocabulary as well as anyone, but I would write kidney instead of nephric. I insisted on using English.”

“When I went for my medical school interview, I had an old paperback of 'Henderson the Rain King' in the pocket of my coat. I was wearing the best clothes I had - a pair of cords and a sport coat - ...”

“But who can remember pain, once its over? All that remains of it is a shadow, not in the mind even, in the flesh. Pain marks you, but too deep to see. Out of sight, out of mind.”

“I know what you are learning to endure. There is nothing to be done. Make sure nothing is wasted. Take notes. Remember it all, every insult, every tear. Tattoo it on the inside of your mind. In lif...”

“My mind, I know, I can prove, hovers on hummingbird wings. It hovers and it churns. And when it's operating at full thrust, the churning does not stop. The machines do not rest, the systems rarely ...”

“Not everyone may not think the way you do.”

“I think you're wrong.""Think what you like.”

“To think, to think, even with a split second left - to think was the only hope.”

“A man who repents after doing any action, he will certainly become pure one day, that is definite.”

“A pure hand needs no glove to cover it.”

“To begin with, we put the proposition: pure phenomenology is the science of pure consciousness.”