“Optimism is denial for chumps with no life experience"."What's pessimism?" I said."Religion without God.”

“I don't practice, but I am still officially in paediatrics. I keep in touch with journals, and I have a very good data bank of medical information and there is a key thing for a writer knowing where to go. I know where to go to get the information that I need.”

“Optimism is denial for chumps with no life experience"."What's pessimism?" I said."Religion without God.”

“Revenge was a dish best eaten cold, but eight years between was arctic.”

“Fools write books about madness being an elevated mental state or an alternative form of creativity. It's not, it's anguish.”

“O Great Swami of the East, your wisdom has pierced the miasma.”

“I'd long thought that a surfeit of sensitivity could be a killing thing, too much insight malignant in its own right. The best survivors--there are studies that show it--are those blessed with an inordinate ability to deny. And keep on marching.”

“To trust someone is to take the greatest risk of all. (180)”

“At first, when a child meets something that scares him, the fear grows, like a wave. But when he goes into the water and swims - gets used to the water - the wave grows small. If we pull the child away when the wave is high, he never sees that, never learns how to swim and remains afraid. If he gets a chance to feel strong, in control, that's called coping. When he copes, he feels better.”

“Through the anger came something I recognized”