You don't have to be a surgeon to enjoy these books. The economics, the politics, the turf fights -- it could be yesterday.

It's fascinating because you see it all.

I hope to finish the book before I'm 90. It keeps you alive. The secret of being a translator is not to be in a hurry. Sometimes it takes hours to find a single word.

Nobody buys them. They find them in the library.

This is the first opportunity to read these fellows in English. The purpose was to provide English-speaking American medical students with materials about the origins of their profession.

I was quite depressed two weeks ago when I spent an afternoon at Brentano's Bookshop in New York and was looking at the kind of books most people read. Once you see that you lose all hope.