23 Quotes by Joanne Liu

When I was 13, I read 'Et la paix dans le monde, Docteur?' a physician's account of working with Medecins Sans Fontieres during the Soviet presence in Afghanistan. It was this book that inspired me to work for MSF.

When I was young, and I wouldn't eat, my parents would say, 'Eat, or else you're going to become a little Biafran.'

People say I'm tough and too blunt. I'm a product of my organization. MSF is a blunt, tough, no-nonsense organization.

You need a balance in life. You just cannot be all the time on an adrenalin peak. You need to recharge.

Somehow we got used to death, and then we dehumanised it. We account for conflicts in figures. Ebola is 13,500 infected, 5,000 people have died... People are losing their sense of empathy, their sense of wanting to do something.

I find myself a bit boring because I somehow always wanted to be MSF.

What are individuals in wars today? Expendable commodities, dead or alive.

The effects of the attacks against health facilities emanate far beyond those immediately killed and injured. They demolish routine and lifesaving health care for all. They make life impossible. Full stop.

When there were cases of Ebola in the States, I respected that people wanted to address concerns and take some sort of action, but the focus turned completely to the U.S. At one point, we started to wonder, Where is the Ebola epidemic happening? The States - or West Africa?