Going through an illness and then death of a close friend has changed my attitudes to friendship enormously.

Anybody can look at you. It's quite rare to find someone who sees the same world you see.

Because there is no glory in illness. There is no meaning to it. There is no honor in dying of.

Attitudes toward food have completely changed.

I don't think attitudes of ballplayers have changed over the years.

I wanted to tell her that I was getting better, because that was supposed to be the narrative of illness: It was a hurdle you jumped over, or a battle you won. Illness is a story told in the past tense.