Betty Rollin

“My mother, who was a courageous and clear-thinking woman, said to me, 'I've had a wonderful life, but it's over, and I'm ready to go.'”

“The ability to die is the one thing that we have that we can control. The rest of life is a crap shoot.”

“The trouble with denial is that it wears off.”

“The best-kept secret in the world is that people don't think. It's so unusual for anyone to think.”

“I think one of the terrible things about the disease is that you are forced to be a kind of optimist.”

“It’s hard to get on with your life when you’re not sure you have one.”

“Dying is a right. It's not a privilege.”

“The worst thing about a terminal illness is the loss of control.”

“A breast is a small thing to lose, but it's a very big thing to lose when it's yours.”

“The one thing you can't be is a hypocrite. You can be a murderer, you can be a thief, but you can't be a hypocrite.”

“What makes life worth living is love, work and, for me, a good laugh.”

“I am not a hero. I am just a woman who had a problem and wrote about it.”

“If I were a doctor, I would not be able to look at my patients and not tell them the truth.”

“The only death I can control is my own. And I want to be able to do that.”