Each is like a river that leaves behind its name and shape, the whole course of its path, to vanish into the vast sea of God.

The liver, that great maroon snail: No wave of emotion sweeps it. Neither music nor mathematics gives it pause in its appointed tasks.

A minor operation is one that is done on someone else

Surgery is the red flower that blooms among the leaves and thorns that are the rest of medicine.

I contemplate the body, dead and diseased as well as alive and healthy.

I don't dawdle. I'm a surgeon. I make an incision, do what needs to be done and sew up the wound. There is a beginning, a middle and an end.