1,237 Quotes About Cancer

Relapse doesn't have to be part of recovery any more than return has to be part of cancer.

Relapse doesn't have to be part of recovery any more than return has to be part of cancer's remission.

She will later tell me she remembers nothing after she entered the bathroom. And later, when she has her last day of chemo, I'll call her to see how she's feeling. "I'm angry," she'll say. "I'm angry and I'm scared and I'm mad at myself for not just being happy and grateful." The truth is that you can be angry and scared and happy and grateful and tired and fed up at the same time. I guess that's the gift of cancer.

It’s like I’m on a roller-coaster ride, but I’m not allowed to get off. I’m strapped to the seat, and within eyesight the unfinished twirl of the track swirls into the air.

blue-gold sky, fresh cloud, emerald-black mountain, trees on rocky ledges, on the summit, the tiny pin of a telephone tower-all brilliantly clear, in shadow and out. and on and through everything everywhere the sun shines without reservation (p. 97)

...gripping the rim of the sink you claw your way to stand and cling there, quaking with will, on heron legs, and still the hot muck pours out of you. (p. 27)

It would be fine, so long as there was no permanent damage. Besides, they had cancer anyway.

Part of me was afraid that if I raised my fist to the sky and demanded an answer now, I would hear a thundering and calloused, 'Because I said so," from God in heaven. And I may not ever want to speak to Him again.

Built on the insubstantial foundation of our feelings, the life we had created together seemed a figment of our imaginations that dissolved into fairy dust in the face of something real, and deadly, like cancer.