Abraham Verghese
In 2009, Abraham Verghese published the novel Cutting for Stone, a notable work listed among his recognized contributions to English-language writing. Born on May 30, 1955, in Addis Ababa, Verghese holds citizenship in both India and the United States. He received medical training at Madras Medical College and later pursued further education at East Tennessee State University. He works as a physician, a university teacher, and a writer, producing texts in English.
His other notable works include The Tennis Partner and The Covenant of Water. At Stanford Medical School, Verghese holds the position of Linda R. Meier and Joan F. Lane Provostial Professor of Medicine and serves as Vice Chair for the Theory and Practice of Medicine, as well as Internal Medicine Clerkship Director. He also co-hosts the Medscape podcast Medicine and the Machine alongside Eric Topol.
Verghese has received several formal honors recognizing his work across medicine and the humanities. These include a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Heinz Award in the Arts and Humanities, and the National Humanities Medal. The Library of Congress catalogs his work under the authorized heading "Verghese, Abraham, 1955-," a designation that reflects the span of his output across multiple decades.
Quotes by Abraham Verghese
Abraham Verghese's insights on:
Medicine may be the lens through which I see the world, but since I think of medicine as 'life +', a place where life is exaggerated and seen at its most vital and poignant, I'll be writing about life more than I will be writing about medicine.
The flip side of suicide is that it leaves a lingering question in the minds of the people who survived. It's like a cancer that's metastasized. The suicide is the cancer and the metastasis is all these people saying, Why? Why? Why?
I felt sorry that he had suffered so long in the hospital, sorry that even in his last minutes our mindless technology had so rudely interrupted his transition.
Prison,” I’d heard Ghosh laughingly tell Adid, “is the best thing for a marriage. If you can’t send your spouse, then go yourself. It works wonders.
I am convinced that one can buy in Harrods of London a kit that allows an enterprising Englishman to create a British school anywhere in the third world. It comes with black robes, preprinted report cards for Michaelmas, Lent, and Easter terms, as well as hymnals, Prefect Badges, and a syllabus. Assembly required.
It was all I had, all I’ve ever had, the only currency, the only proof that I was alive. Memory.
There are moments as a teacher when I’m conscious that I’m trotting out the same exact phrase my professor used with me years ago. It’s an eerie feeling, as if my old mentor is not just in the room, but in my shoes, using me as his mouthpiece.
But there’s another kind of hole, and that is the wound that divides family. Sometimes this wound occurs at the moment of birth, sometimes it happens later. We are all fixing what is broken. It is the task of a lifetime. We’ll leave much unfinished for the next generation.
I love to read poetry but I haven’t written anything that I’m willing to show anybody.