“I'm so sorry,' Stone said. I don't know whether he was speaking to me, or Ghosh, or the universe. It wasn't enough,… — Abraham Verghese Copy Share Image
“It was the very moment when I thought, At last, she is going to stay, but in fact it was her good-bye.” — Abraham Verghese Copy Share Image
I believe in black holes. I believe that as the universe empties into nothingness, past and future will smack together in the… — Abraham Verghese Copy Share Image
“Nevertheless, I drove right past my landmark, an antique store which looked to me like an ordinary house with junk piled on… — Abraham Verghese Copy Share Image
Literature is a beautiful way of keeping the imagination alive, of visiting worlds you would never have time to in your day-to-day… — Abraham Verghese Copy Share Image
My sense is that the wonderful technology that we have to visualize the inside of the body often leaves physicians feeling that… — Abraham Verghese Copy Share Image
“And as for my father? No, he wouldn't ever walk through those gates; I now knew that. Whatever Thomas Stone had, wherever… — Abraham Verghese Copy Share Image
“Impending death had a way of unexpectedly unearthing the past so that it came together with the present in an unholy coupling.” — Abraham Verghese Copy Share Image
“But there's another kind of hole, and that is the wound that divides family. Sometimes this wound occurs at the moment of… — Abraham Verghese Copy Share Image
This is my life, I thought...I have excised the cancer from my past, cut it out; I have crossed the high plains,… — Abraham Verghese Copy Share Image
I write by stealing time. The hours in the day have never felt as if they belonged to me. The greatest number… — Abraham Verghese Copy Share Image
My deceased patients have taught me over the years to believe in the glass half full, to make good use of the… — Abraham Verghese Copy Share Image
As a young physician in the mid-'80s, caring for people who had contracted H.I.V., I lost two of my patients to suicide… — Abraham Verghese Copy Share Image
“There it was, Hema must have thought; it was both the sorry and the thank-you that was so long overdue, and the… — Abraham Verghese Copy Share Image
There are moments as a teacher when I'm conscious that I'm trotting out the same exact phrase my professor used with me… — Abraham Verghese Copy Share Image
“I wanted to write down every bit of wisdom he could impart to me. All sons should write down every word of… — Abraham Verghese Copy Share Image
“I believe that as the universe empties into nothingness, past and future will smack together in the last swirl around the drain.… — Abraham Verghese Copy Share Image
“I'll never forget the stillness, the hesitation, and a trace of something I'd never before seen on Ghosh's face: cunning. Then it… — Abraham Verghese Copy Share Image
“I spent as much time as I could with Ghosh. I wanted every bit of wisdom he could impart to me. All… — Abraham Verghese Copy Share Image
“...a world where a sparrow's fate and that of a man can be decided in the blink of a cat's eye, such… — Abraham Verghese Copy Share Image
“There wasn't any point in dwelling in the pain of the past, not when the future could hold suck pleasure.” — Abraham Verghese Copy Share Image
You can't show up at the bedside and then turn on your skills. You have to keep your game sharp all the… — Abraham Verghese Copy Share Image
I've never bought this idea of taking a therapeutic distance. If I see a student or house staff cry, I take great faith in… — Abraham Verghese Copy Share
I love to read poetry but I haven't written anything that I'm willing to show anybody. — Abraham Verghese Copy Share
We come unbidden into this life, and if we are lucky we find a purpose beyond starvation, misery, and early death which, lest we… — Abraham Verghese Copy Share
I think America is really in denial about the degree to which residents, particularly foreign medical graduates, man the county hospitals of this country,… — Abraham Verghese Copy Share
“Do they listen?" He held up a finger. "Every year one does," he said, ginning, "But that one makes it worthwhile. Even Jesus only… — Abraham Verghese Copy Share
“It seems we humans never learn. And so we relearn the lesson every generation and then want to write epistles. We proselytize to our… — Abraham Verghese Copy Share
It was all I had, all I've ever had, the only currency, the only proof that I was alive. Memory. — Abraham Verghese Copy Share
“There it was, Hema must have thought; it was both the sorry and the thank-you that was so long overdue, and the funny thing… — Abraham Verghese Copy Share
“This is my life, I thought, as my taxi slogged through heavy traffic and inched through the tunnel to Logan Airport. I have excised… — Abraham Verghese Copy Share
“I could see that the almost mystical aura of this legendary surgeon -- the single-mindedness, the dedication, the skill -- was mere surface. The… — Abraham Verghese Copy Share
“As a child I'd longed for Thomas Stone or at least the idea of him. So many mornings I waited for him at the… — Abraham Verghese Copy Share
“The reader, knowing nothing about the ‘dark continent,’ filled in the blanks. Pictured Stone in a tent, kerosene lamp held up by a Hottentot… — Abraham Verghese Copy Share
“This was what growing up was about: hide the corpse, don't bare your heart, do make assumptions about the motives of others. They're certainly… — Abraham Verghese Copy Share
“And as for my father? No, he wouldn't ever walk through those gates; I now knew that. Whatever Thomas Stone had, wherever he was… — Abraham Verghese Copy Share
“... telling herself stories about herself in a singsong voice, creating her own mythology.” — Abraham Verghese Copy Share
