White. Like a clean piece of paper, like uncarved ivory, all is white when the story begins.

But being able to talk to so many patients from so many walks of life gives a tremendous window into people's lives. This is not to say I want to write about individual patients, but I think that after listening to the concerns of people who are so different from me, I can more realistically portray characters who are so different from me.

While medicine creates material for writing, perhaps even more important is that it also creates a psychological and emotional need to write.