A post from Andy: . I never met Paul Kalanithi. . We knew each other for a total of four months, talked on the phone a bunch of times (more than once, while he was in the middle of a chemo treatment), and exchanged a flurry of emails on writers we loved, his upcoming trip to the Super Bowl, and the direction his book—the book we were working on together—should take in the end. The truth is, despite Paul's incredible warmth, his sense of humor, and his willingness to engage so fully in the writer-editor relationship, I was a little intimidated by him, by the immensity of what he had accomplished at so young an age: Stanford neurosurgeon, father, husband, holder of many degrees, reciter of romantic poems, deep thinker, supremely calm, kind, and rational person—when it came to questions of mortality and, as Paul put it, what it means to live a meaningful life, I figured my job was just to shut up and listen for once. So I did. And on these subjects, Paul had so much to say. So many of the passages in his book will stay with me, will comfort, challenge, and inspire me, for the rest of my days. Here, a few examples, but a caveat: I could have quoted twenty more passages like this, passages so crystalline and beautiful, so essentially true, they make me want to weep.
When Breath Becomes Air
When Breath Becomes Air
When Breath Becomes Air
A post from Andy: . I never met Paul Kalanithi. . We knew each other for a total of four months, talked on the phone a bunch of times (more than once, while he was in the middle of a chemo treatment), and exchanged a flurry of emails on writers we loved, his upcoming trip to the Super Bowl, and the direction his book—the book we were working on together—should take in the end. The truth is, despite Paul's incredible warmth, his sense of humor, and his willingness to engage so fully in the writer-editor relationship, I was a little intimidated by him, by the immensity of what he had accomplished at so young an age: Stanford neurosurgeon, father, husband, holder of many degrees, reciter of romantic poems, deep thinker, supremely calm, kind, and rational person—when it came to questions of mortality and, as Paul put it, what it means to live a meaningful life, I figured my job was just to shut up and listen for once. So I did. And on these subjects, Paul had so much to say. So many of the passages in his book will stay with me, will comfort, challenge, and inspire me, for the rest of my days. Here, a few examples, but a caveat: I could have quoted twenty more passages like this, passages so crystalline and beautiful, so essentially true, they make me want to weep.