From Shūsaku Endō's preface to When I Whistle, which describes his medical ordeals after contracting tuberculosis.
"A cold I developed in Rome refused to go away & when I returned to Japan the doctor told me that my lungs had suffered a relapse. I spent the next three years... "in a hospital bed & in 1961 underwent three major operations...
Thought must be given to the first words uttered after awakening from the anaesthetic. Before my first operation, I decided that when that time came, I would impress my family & friends by muttering some profound...