MARY: Well, I worry terribly about lung cancer. I also worry about shortness of breath and heart disease. But what really worries me right this minute is that I’m not going to find a cigarette.
Jean Kerr (1922–2003) American author and playwright [b. Bridget Jean Collins]
Mary, Mary, Act 3 (1961)
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Quotations about:
cancer
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Like any of life’s refining fires, cancer is a potentially profound learning experience. So what did I learn? I learned that profound learning experiences are vastly overrated.
Joni Rodgers (b. 1962) American author
Bald in the Land of Big Hair (2001)
The religion of endless growth — like any religion based on blind faith rather than reason — is a kind of mania, a form of lunacy, indeed a disease. And the one disease to which the growth mania bears an exact analogical resemblance is cancer. Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell. Cancer has no purpose but growth; but it does have another result — the death of the host.
Edward Abbey (1927–1989) American anarchist, writer, environmentalist
“Arizona: How Big is Enough?”One Life at a Time, Please (1988)
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The three most beautiful words in the English language are not “I love you.” They are: “It is benign.”
Woody Allen (b. 1935) American comedian, writer, director [b. Allan Steward Konigsberg]
Deconstructing Harry (1998)
I just finished with nine months of treatment for cancer. First they poison you, then they mutilate you, then they burn you. I’ve had more fun. And when it’s over, you’re so glad that you’re grateful to absolutely everyone. And I am. The trouble is, I’m not a better person. I was in great hopes that confronting my own mortality would make me deeper, more thoughtful. Many lovely people sent books on how to find a more spiritual meaning in life. My response was, “Oh, hell, I can’t go on a spiritual journey — I’m constipated.”
Molly Ivins (1944–2007) American writer, political columnist [Mary Tyler Ivins]
Essay (2000-10), “Cancer, II,” The Progressive magazine
Collected in her Who Let the Dogs In? (2004) as part of the essay "Class Warfare, Anyone?" An expanded version of the essay can be found Myers & Ferlin (eds.), My Body of Knowledge (2006), where it is credited to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram (2000). This appears to be the same essay as "Thank You," posted at the Texas Observer site (2000-09-08).
In a similar vein, Ivins wrote in "Who Needs Breasts, Anyway?", Time (2002-02-18):Having breast cancer is massive amounts of no fun. First they mutilate you; then they poison you; then they burn you. I have been on blind dates better than that.
