I've heard doctors say that before the crisis hits, people don't want prolonged measures, but then in the middle of the crisis they want everything.

To do more, is not necessarily to do better.

I don't think people ever were free of fear of death, but clinging to life and being so unprepared for it is a modern experience.

Three-quarters of people say they want to die at home, but only a quarter of people actually do.

Attempting to grapple with improving end-of-life care is a political third rail.

Almost anyone you talk to will say, 'I don't want to die plugged into machines.

I think it's very interesting that [doctors] privilege the self that is saying, "I don't want to die," but want to discount the self that said, "I want to allow natural death in such a situation."

I want to break the taboo against questioning this drive for maximum longevity.

Very few of us are succeeding in giving our parents the ideal death.

I want people to suffer less, and I think it's possible.

Hunters will tell you that a moose is a wily and ferocious forest creature. Nonsense. A moose is a cow drawn by a three-year-old.

We’ve learned that sometimes a lack of conflict in a marriage means you are not fighting for it. There are times you must battle to become one.

Leadership is an opportunity to serve. It is not a trumpet call to self-importance.

I don't do research for my novels. Obviously, in my other line of work as a reporter and a columnist, I've had the opportunity to get to know both social workers and TV talk-show hosts.

Renunciation remains sorrow, though a sorrow borne willingly.

When I do ties, I bid them out.

Preceding accomplishment must be desire. Thy desires must be strong and definite.

The song, to me, is about what it is to be a human, what it is to love someone as a human being, and organizations that would undermine that, and undermine the more natural parts of being a person

Love is not something dead, like a stone. When it melts, it encompasses everything.

Leaders grow; they are not made.