Expertise is the mantra of modern medicine.

Better is possible. It does not take genius. It takes diligence. It takes moral clarity. It takes ingenuity. And above all, it takes a willingness to try.

Our reluctance to honestly examine the experience of aging and dying has increased the harm we inflict on people and denied them the basic comforts they most need.

No matter what measures are taken, doctors will sometimes falter, and it isn't reasonable to ask that we achieve perfection. What is reasonable is to ask that we never cease to aim for it.

You may not control life's circumstances, but getting to be the author of your life means getting to control what you do with them.

You can't make a recipe for something as complicated as surgery. Instead, you can make a recipe for how to have a team that's prepared for the unexpected.

Arriving at an acceptance of one's mortality is a process, not an epiphany.

Courage is strength in the face of knowledge of what is to be feared or hoped. Wisdom is prudent strength.

Coaching done well may be the most effective intervention designed for human performance.

Life is choices, and they are relentless. No sooner have you made one choice than another is upon you.

This is the reality of intensive care: at any point, we are as apt to harm as we are to heal.

Yes, please leave us, the mere presence of beings like yourselves is intensely painful to us.

The opportunity for doing mischief is found a hundred times a day and of doing good once in a year.

I almost broke my coccyx on 'The Wolf Man,' and I banged my head once. I had to fall really hard.

All that waiting around for a glimmer of stage time, just getting angry every week... It was just an oppressive, horrible, horrible place to be. I went to work feeling nauseous.

The world needs the sense that we are all in it together.

Well, we can skip childhood because I didn't have any. Not one goddam moment on the Good Ship Lollipop.

You can't fake it. Bad writing is a gift.

Some people can sit down and write a song, but they can't go on stage like I can.

Life without friendship is like the sky without sun.

By the time I was ready for college, I didn't know what I wanted to do. I think I secretly wanted a show business career, but I was suppressing it.