12 quotes
"A rich man's faults are covered with money, but a surgeon's faults are covered with earth."
Cutting for Stone (2009)
The world turns on our every action, and our every omission, whether we know it or not.
Cutting for Stone (2009)
And that is how he passed from this life to the next, without fanfare, with characteristic simplicity, fearless, opening his eyes that last time to make sure we were fine before he went on.
Cutting for Stone (2009)
Maybe it was written on my face that I'd become aware of human complexity - that's a kinder word than "deceit".
Cutting for Stone (2009)
All possibilities resided within me, and they required me to be here. If I left, what would be left of me?
Cutting for Stone (2009)
I believe in black holes. I believe that as the universe empties into nothingness, past and future will smack together in the last swirl around the drain.
Cutting for Stone (2009)
All my ghosts had vanished; the retribution that they sought had been exacted. I had nothing more to give and nothing to fear.
Cutting for Stone (2009)
Ghosh trusted me to do whatever it is I would choose to do. That, too, is love. He'd been dead more than a quarter century and he was still teaching me about the trust that comes only from true love.
Cutting for Stone (2009)
Encouraged by the old surgical saw "Any idiot can amputate a led," Ghosh had decided to proceed. If he hesitated, it was because the rest of the saying went "but it takes a skilled surgeon to save one."
Cutting for Stone (2009)
Her skills were so rare, so needed for the poorest of the poor, and even at times in the royal palace, that she felt valued. Wasn't that the definition of home? Not where you are from, but where you are wanted?
Cutting for Stone (2009)
"... How we treat the least of out brethren, how we treat the peasant suffering with volvulus, that's the measure of this country. Not our fighter planes or tanks, or how big the Emperor's palace happens to be ..."
Cutting for Stone (2009)
I have excised the cancer from my past, cut it out; I have crossed the high plains, descended into the desert, traversed oceans, and planted my feet in new soil; I have been the apprentice, paid my dues, and have become master of my ship. But when I look down, why do I see the ancient, tarred, mud-stained slippers that I buried at the start of the journey still stuck to my feet?
Cutting for Stone (2009)