“You will see at precisely what moment the writer ceases to think of his character as an instrument to be manipulated and think of him as someone with whom he has fallen in love. For it is always, must always… — Richard Selzer Copy Share Image
You cannot separate passion from pathology any more than you can separate a person's spirit from his body. — Richard Selzer Copy Share Image
And If the surgeon is like a poet, then the scars you have made on countless bodies are like verses into the fashioning of… — Richard Selzer Copy Share Image
Thus is the fruit of the Earth taken, its flesh torn. Thus is it given over standing, toward rot. It is the principle of… — Richard Selzer Copy Share Image
You do not die all at once. Some tissues live on for minutes, even hours, giving still their little cellular shrieks, molecular echoes of… — Richard Selzer Copy Share Image
“You will see at precisely what moment the writer ceases to think of his character as an instrument to be manipulated and think of… — Richard Selzer Copy Share Image
The liver, that great maroon snail: No wave of emotion sweeps it. Neither music nor mathematics gives it pause in its appointed tasks. — Richard Selzer Copy Share Image
Surgery is the red flower that blooms among the leaves and thorns that are the rest of medicine. — Richard Selzer Copy Share Image
If people understood that doctors weren't divine, perhaps the odor of malpractice might diminish. — Richard Selzer Copy Share Image
