Risa Quotes & Sayings

I realized in order to be involved in health policy, you really had to understand more than the individual patient that we as physicians, are taught to think about. — Risa J. Lavizzo-Mourey

What bothers her most is that she cares. Risa was always able to take care of herself, both physically and emotionally. At the state home, either you developed several layers of personal armor or you were eaten alive. When had that changed? Was it when she was forced to play music as kids were led into the building beneath her to be unwound? Was it when she made the choice to accept a shattered spine, rather than having it replaced by the healthy spine of an Unwind? Or maybe it was before that, when she realized that, against all sense and reason, she had fallen in love with Connor Lassiter? — Neal Shusterman

I grew up with a lot of dinner table conversations about health care and ways in which the system was inadequate for the needs of many of the patients they took care of. — Risa J. Lavizzo-Mourey

Hole ... " He grips Risa's hand tighter. "Hole, Risa, hole ... " And she smiles "Yes, Connor," she says. "You're whole. You're finally whole. — Neal Shusterman

He will only do the wrong thing when it's the right thing to do.. — Neal Shusterman

Risa: I love you!
Otani: I know.
Risa: And ... you love me too, right, Otani?
Otani: Yeah.
Crowd: *cheers* Good job, buddy!
Risa and Otani: AHHHHH! *runs away* — Atsushi Otani

Safe Routes to School is one with great potential to get children walking and biking to school again. The program uses federal grants to make road and sidewalk repairs aimed at getting kids to school safely on foot or bicycle. The money also supports efforts to get the community, school officials and others involved. — Risa Lavizzo-Mourey

Higher costs naturally translate into fewer employers offering insurance coverage, and fewer employees accepting it, even when it is offered. — Risa Lavizzo-Mourey

It isn't unusual to see children climb into a car every morning to be ferried to the front door of a school that's just a few blocks away. — Risa Lavizzo-Mourey

I wanted to go from seeing the individual patient to seeing the plural - the whole population as a market. You want to see the larger population, yet at the same time you need to understand the impact of decisions on individuals. — Risa Lavizzo-Mourey

Big-Picture-speak, Risa calls it. Seeing the whole, and none of the parts. — Neal Shusterman

They meet in the girls' bathroom. The last time they were forced to meet in a place like this, they took separate, isolated stalls. Now they share one. They hold each other in the tight space, making no excuses for it. There's no time left in their lives for games, or for awkwardness, or for pretending they don't care about each others, and so they kiss as if they've done it forever. As if it is as crucial as the need for oxygen. — Neal Shusterman

Grow it, pick it, and eat it fresh. — Risa Stephanie Bear

Increasingly we know that we're going to have multiple medical conditions, and the person who's got the greatest incentive to manage those conditions is the patient him or herself. — Risa Lavizzo-Mourey

She couldn't turn away from the eyes that held her. Eyes as deep, as Dark as the night, yet there was something that sparked with warmth, that kept those eyes from being cold. — Lora Leigh

I think one key part of doing more with less is to be more strategic, to realize what the objectives you're truly trying to accomplish are and then to drive with greater focus towards those objectives. — Risa Lavizzo-Mourey

The woman wears a floral print blouse with lots of leaves and pink flowers. Risa would like to attack her with a weed whacker. — Neal Shusterman

The things that are going to actually help you or me stay healthy are not necessarily the things that happen inside a doctor's office. They're the things that allow us to choose healthy lifestyles on a day-by-day basis. — Risa Lavizzo-Mourey

Otani: Oh no. This is bad.
Risa: What?
Otani: I ... I seem to like you much more than I realized. — Atsushi Otani

I love you, Risa," he says. "Every last part of me. — Neal Shusterman

It holds no fear for her now, because the shark has been tamed by the soul of a boy. No
the soul of a man. — Neal Shusterman

American healthcare faces a crisis in quality. There is a dangerous divide between the potential for the high level of quality care that our health system promises and the uneven quality that it actually delivers. — Risa Lavizzo-Mourey

[ ... ] every time he forces himself to think before acting, it's her voice in his head telling him to slow down. He wants to tell her, but she's always so busy in the medical jet - and you don't just go to somebody and say, I'm a better person because you're in my head. — Neal Shusterman

It is a proud moment when you can define a problem and make a commitment and begin to see a groundswell of activity towards addressing what has the potential to change the life trajectory of millions of kids. — Risa J. Lavizzo-Mourey

I'm against solutions that are worse than the problem. Like old women who want their hair dyed the color of shoe polish to hide the gray. — Neal Shusterman

I think the house call is one of the ways I get an insight into the ways in which people live and the importance of environment in keeping people healthy. — Risa J. Lavizzo-Mourey

The causes of obesity are varied and complex, but the lack of daily physical activity is an important factor. — Risa Lavizzo-Mourey

I realize there are few sectors that can do what philanthropy does, which is look at big problems, take a long term view, try to develop strategies for addressing the root causes and then go about solving them. — Risa J. Lavizzo-Mourey

What happened to the tradition of walking to school? The simple answer is change. Change in traffic patterns and street planning that have made school routes less pedestrian-friendly. — Risa Lavizzo-Mourey

Progress among the youngest children is especially important because we know that preventing obesity at an early age helps young people maintain a healthy weight into adulthood. — Risa Lavizzo-Mourey

What is Medicaid all about? It's staying true to the mission: to care for people historically left behind. — Risa Lavizzo-Mourey

I have everything that I could ever need or want, in this moment and in this place and it lies within myself to be all that I was created for in this life. I will not faint and I will not falter! I shall overcome and defeat that which comes against anyone or anything that I hold dear." Risa in The Phoenix Three: No Greater Love. Scheduled for release in 2013. — Eilish Hawes-Fraser

And so, as the mob backs away to give them space ... as the riot police holster their weapons, standing down, and as Risa takes the podium, calming the crowd with a voice as soothing as a sonata, Connor Lassiter holds his family like he'll never let them go. — Neal Shusterman

I tell every young woman who asks me, be very careful about your choice of spouse. If you don't have a supportive spouse, it will be difficult to take on so many things. — Risa Lavizzo-Mourey

Looks are deceiving," Risa says. "After all, when I first saw you I thought you looked reasonably intelligent. — Neal Shusterman

I am yours," he whispered. "I live to hold you, Risa. I breathe to touch you. — Lora Leigh

He (Connor) will only do the wrong thing when it's the right thing to do. - Risa — Neal Shusterman

You see, Risa, survival is a dance between our needs and our consciences. When the need is great enough, and the music loud enough, we can stomp conscience into the ground.'
Risa closes her eyes. She knows the dance ...
'It's the way of the world,' Divan continues. 'Look at unwinding, society's grand gavotte of denial. There will, no doubt, come a time when people look to one another and say, 'My God, what have we done?' But I don't believe it will happen any time soon. Until then, the dance must have music; the chorus must have its voice. Give it that voice, Risa. Play for me.'
But Risa's fingers offer him nothing, and the Orgao Organico holds the obdurate, unyielding silence of the grave. — Neal Shusterman

Electronic medical records are, in a lot of ways, I think the aspect of technology that is going to revolutionize the way we deliver care. And it's not just that we will be able to collect information, it's that everyone involved in the healthcare enterprise will be able to use that information more effectively. — Risa Lavizzo-Mourey

Traditional nursing facilities are sterile institutions rather than homes - which is why many Americans do not want to live in one or want this as their only option for themselves or their family members. — Risa Lavizzo-Mourey

We all have to learn how to reengineer healthy living back into our lives. — Risa Lavizzo-Mourey

I grew up with a real appreciation about just how wonderful and intimate the relationship is between a doctor and a patient was and the sense that this was a noble profession. — Risa J. Lavizzo-Mourey

Unlike traditional nursing homes, Green House homes provide elders with a high quality of life and quality of care in a setting that feels like a real home. By altering the facility size, interior design, staffing patterns and service-delivery method, the Green House model provides residents better, safer and more personalized care. — Risa Lavizzo-Mourey

The Fatigues all talk like that. Big-Picture-speak, Risa calls it. Seeing the whole, and none of the parts. It's not just in their speech but in their eyes as well.
When they look at Risa, she can tell they don't really see her. They seem to see the mob of Unwinds more as a concept rather than a collection of anxious kids, and so they miss all the subtle social tremors that shake things just as powerfully as the jets shake the roof. — Neal Shusterman

Lev looks at Risa, almost afraid to ask the obvious question. Finally he says, 'Uh ... why do we have a baby?'
'Ask him,' says Risa.
Stone-faced, Conner looks out of the window. 'They're looking for two boys and a girl. Having a baby will throw them off.'
'Great,' snaps Risa. 'Maybe we should all pick up a baby along the way. — Neal Shusterman

I see more of what is going on around me because I am not concerned with finding a parking place. — Risa Mickenberg

The people that you work with, the organizations that are committed to the same objectives. If they know that you're in it together, and you're working towards the same objectives, and you agree on how to do more with less, you can actually have a greater impact. — Risa Lavizzo-Mourey

This is our bottom line: The ways we give should and will evolve to enable us to achieve greater impact to improve the health and health care of all Americans. — Risa Lavizzo-Mourey

I had an interest in health policy and a realization that, as an academic physician, one of the things you're always looking to do is to have your clinical interests and your scholarly interests overlap and reinforce one another. — Risa Lavizzo-Mourey

I start my day by trying to be healthy and exercising and thinking about and reading about the challenges. I live the mission that way. — Risa Lavizzo-Mourey

Wars have a way reinventing people. And making too many things disappear.
-Sonia — Neal Shusterman

You don't like her, do you?" "Who, me? No, I love her dearly. Evil scheming bitches are my favorite kind of people." (Risa) — Neal Shusterman

Older patients who live alone can become depressed. — Risa J. Lavizzo-Mourey

Just to show you how far I was from predicting the accident or suspecting that it could occur-even though, except for Dolores Driscoll, who drove the bus, I was surely the person in town closest to the event, the only eyewitness, you might say-at the moment it occurred I was thinking of fucking Risa Walker. — Russell Banks

Once I started working with older people, I realized how much I enjoyed the intellectual challenge of taking care of patients who have multiple, complex medical problems. — Risa Lavizzo-Mourey

Are they trained to treat everyone as a servant?'
'Probably. That doesn't make you into one, — Sherwood Smith

How many kids are in the Graveyard?"
"A bunch."
"Who sends your supplies?"
"George Washington. Or is it Abraham Lincoln? I forget."
"How often do you receive new arrivals?"
"About as often as you beat your wife. — Neal Shusterman

...any guy can buy you flowers, but the one who buys you hemorrhoid cream must really, really love you. — Risa Green

I always knew I wanted to be a doctor, but I also knew that being a doctor meant more than treating just the patient in front of you. — Risa Lavizzo-Mourey

Don't I have a choice in this? But when she looks behind her, the answer is
clear. There are two guards waiting to make sure that she has no choice at all.
And as they lead her away, she thinks of Mr. Durkin. With a bitter laugh, Risa
realizes that he may get his wish after all. Someday he may see her hands playing
in Carnegie Hall. Unfortunately, the rest of Risa won't be there. — Neal Shusterman

My mother was a pediatrician, and she kept busy hours. I learned from her you could pack a lot into the day. Every minute had to count, and multitasking was a given. — Risa Lavizzo-Mourey

I've been described as impatient. — Risa Lavizzo-Mourey

Which is worse, Risa often wondered, to have tens of thousands of babies that no one wanted or to silently make then go away before they were even born — Neal Shusterman

Understand the ways in which your hard work is going to be necessary to achieve the goals that you want. — Risa Lavizzo-Mourey

She thinks about the days before the War, when unwanted babies could just be unwanted pregnancies, quickly made to go away. Did the women who made that other choice feel the way she felt now? Relieved and freed from an unwelcome and often unfair responsibility ... yet vaguely regretful?
...
Which was worse, Risa often wondered - to have tens of thousands of babies that no one wanted, or to silently make them go away before they were even born? On different days Risa had different answers. — Neal Shusterman