Selzer Quotes & Sayings

And If the surgeon is like a poet, then the scars you have made on countless bodies are like verses into the fashioning of which you have poured your soul. — Richard Selzer

The heart is pure theater throbbing in its cage palpably as any nightingale. — Richard Selzer

Each is like a river that leaves behind its name and shape, the whole course of its path , to vanish into the vast sea of God. — Richard Selzer

What Richard Selzer, M.D. once wrote of surgery is true of therapy: only human love keeps this from being the act of two madmen. — Thomas Lewis

Whenever I start thinking about death, it always cheers me up to think about my funeral and my tombstone (which, by the way, will say "Here lies Harlan Sturr. Please don't pee on him.") — Adam Selzer

When a girl turns down your advances, the polite thing to do is just move on. — Adam Selzer

I never intended to become a writer. — Richard Selzer

If people understood that doctors weren't divine, perhaps the odor of malpractice might diminish. — Richard Selzer

And the third is from him: "Second date?"
I immediately text him back: "Hell yeah!"
Then I collapse on my bed and enjoy that "butterflies in the stomach" feeling. I've felt the butterflies before from time to time, but this is the first time I haven't sort of wanted to attack them with a flyswatter. — Adam Selzer

Thus is the fruit of the Earth taken, its flesh torn. Thus is it given over standing, toward rot. It is the principle of corruption, the death of what is, the birth of what is to be. You are wine. — Richard Selzer

The grist for my mill is the human body and the art of healing. — Richard Selzer

Following the footnotes of a Lincoln book can drive you towards madness. But it also gives you the chance to spend days trying to determine whether Lincoln might have actually taken a ride on a flying piano, and that's a damned interesting way to spend one's working life. — Adam Selzer

Let me get this straight," I say. "You're practically ordering me to die. What kind of guidance counselor are you? — Adam Selzer

Autopsies give us the facts but not the truth. — Richard Selzer

There are no "great" subjects for the creative writer; there are only the singular details of a single human life. — Richard Selzer

I mean, you really can't imagine how awesome coffee tastes, or how awesome it is to hear music, to hear idiots talking ... I mean, it hurts. Everything hurts. But everything in the world is so awesome that sometimes I just can't stand it. — Adam Selzer

A man does not know whose hands will stroke from him the last bubbles of his life. That alone should make him kinder to strangers. — Richard Selzer

The Country Doctor Revisited is a fine achievement. Purporting to be an overview of the practice of medicine in rural areas, it is a splendid portrait of the practice of medicine everywhere. The special conditions that prevail in the countryside as opposed to the cities are examined, and each of these is illustrated by a case history that is as compelling as it is informative. It is presented in a highly readable form that would be accessible to the general public as well as to the deliverers of health care. I recommend it most highly. — Richard Selzer

I mean, who wants to date a guy who thinks a girl who can't operate a fruit cup is attractive? — Adam Selzer

What are you eating?" he ask us.
"Whatever won't kill me, please" I said.
"Whatever don't kill you'll make you stronger" says Eddie, who is always ready with folksy wisdom.
"All right," I say. "Then give me whatever will make me stronger."
"One pizza, coming up. — Adam Selzer

You will see at precisely what moment the writer ceases to think of his character as an instrument to be manipulated and think of him as someone with whom he has fallen in love. For it is always, must always be, a matter of love. — Richard Selzer

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was the most sweeping civil rights legislation of its day, and included women's rights as part of its reforms. Ironically, the section on women's rights was added by a senator from Virginia who opposed the whole thing and was said to be sure that if he stuck something about womens' rights into it, it would never pass. The bill passed anyway, though, much to the chagrin of a certain wiener from Virginia. — Adam Selzer

You cannot separate passion from pathology any more than you can separate a person's spirit from his body. — Richard Selzer

A long time ago, Trinity and I made a list of types of guys you should never date. We add to it every now and then. It includes things like never date a guy whose computer costs more than his car (you'll never get him to pay attention to you except over instant messages), never date a guy who has a pet lizard (he's probably into weird stuff in bed) and never under any circumstances go on a second date with a guy who says the word "married" on the first date (he'll turn out to be a mama's boy or a religious type) — Adam Selzer

I contemplate the body, dead and diseased as well as alive and healthy. — Richard Selzer

Did you just hit on her by calling her your cousin?" asks Sadie. "'Cause, damn! — Adam Selzer

A minor operation is one that is done on someone else — Richard Selzer

The liver, that great maroon snail: No wave of emotion sweeps it. Neither music nor mathematics gives it pause in its appointed tasks. — Richard Selzer

If you really like someone, it doesn't matter what their mouth feels or tastes like. The kiss is still awesome. — Adam Selzer

If I quit surgery, I'd be afraid I'd dry up. — Richard Selzer

Not that anyone minds
no one's paying attention to the music. Most of them never really listen to music. Practically no one actually does. Even at concerts people pay good money for, instead of a three-dollar cover charge, they talk through the whole thing. I feel sorry for them, since none of them understand what it's like to have a song just get into your soul and become your whole world. They don't know what it's like when a song changes your life. — Adam Selzer

Go to college. Have a lot of babies. Break a lot of hearts. And realize every minute of it. — Adam Selzer

When you're dead, everything in the world is like a song that makes you cry. — Adam Selzer

Isn't it generally known that you have to overlook flaws in people you date, to some extent? I mean, you expect them to overlook your flaws. It's only fair that you overlook some of theirs. — Adam Selzer

Wow," says Peter, "when your guidance counselor tells you to die, you really have problems. — Adam Selzer

Cutting for Stone is nothing short of masterful -a riveting tale of love, medicine, and the complex dynamic of twin brothers. It is beautifully conceived and written. The settings are wonderfully pictorial. There is no doubt in my mind that Cutting for Stone will endure in the permanent literature of our time. — Richard Selzer

You do not die all at once. Some tissues live on for minutes, even hours, giving still their little cellular shrieks, molecular echoes of the agony of the whole corpus. — Richard Selzer

Some of them are wearing skirts that I'm pretty sure are supposed to be belts. — Adam Selzer

Surgery is the red flower that blooms among the leaves and thorns that are the rest of medicine. — Richard Selzer

There a lot of things I can't do," he says. "With my ... health."
"Well," I say, "can you kiss girls? — Adam Selzer

The surgeon knows all the parts of the brain but he does not know his patient's dreams. — Richard Selzer