The Anatomy Lesson (Vintage International)

by Philip Roth

“Except, whatever problems are plaguing you in writing, they’re going to be right there, you know, when you’re a doctor. You can grow sick and tired of the real thing too. Tired of the cancers, tired of the strokes, tired of the families taking the bad news. You can get just as tired of malignant tumors as you can of anything else. Look, I’ve had experience right up to here, and it doesn’t pay off as greatly as you might think. You get so involved in experience, you lose the opportunity to grasp what you’re going through. You pay your money, Zuck, and you take your choice. I happen to think you’re going to be Zuckerman the doctor just the way you’re Zuckerman the writer, no different.” “But the isolation won’t be there, the solitude won’t be there—it can’t be there. The physical differences are too great. There are a thousand people walking around this hospital. Know who walks around my study, who I palpate and tell to say ‘Ahhh’? Writing is not a very sociable business.” “I don’t even agree with that. Your solitude is of your own making. Working with people is obviously alien to your nature. Your temperament’s your temperament, and it’ll still be yourself you’re telling to say ‘Ahhh.’