Public Statements and Attributed Quotes

• "I have for some time been collecting the phrases that patients use to complain about us doctors, and it is amazing how often you hear, "(S)he never touched me!" or, "… never laid a hand on me!" or "never looked at me" or "never listened" or "was too busy looking at the computer screen." Here Verghese is lecturing the medical world on why patients complain about the way they have been treated. In doing so, he has brought a sense of humanity back to physical exams.
• Although Verghese is often critical about the way medicine is practiced, he has a great deal of respect for the profession itself. The quote "Medicine is so beautiful, and yet it has its seamy underbelly," shows how he takes a realistic approach to the environment he works in, but sees the good side of it at the same time.
• After leaving the medical field following an exhausting battle against AIDS, Verghese felt compelled to develop his writing abilities. However, this was to the detriment of his family at some points. "It was very selfish on my part. To me, it felt like survival," is a quote that shows how at that point in his life, Verghese was trying to survive emotionally.
• Much of the exhaustion that came from Verghese's work with AIDS came not from the workload itself, but the realization that he had taken the wrong approach. When referring to the way he would treat AIDS patients, he described himself as getting caught up in the "conceit of cure."