If you want to choose the pleasure of growth, prepare yourself for some pain. Irvin D. Yalom More Quotes by Irvin D. Yalom More Quotes From Irvin D. Yalom We're passing on something of ourselves to others. I feel that's what makes our life full of meaning. It's hard to have meaning in a closet, encapsulated by nothing. I think you really have to expand yourself and your life and do what you can for other people. Irvin D. Yalom yourself you life people I think all kinds of meanings in life transcend your self. They're linked to other generations of people around us, to our children and our family. We're passing on something of ourselves to others. I feel that's what makes our life full of meaning. Irvin D. Yalom family life children people I always wanted to be a writer. Maybe, had I been brought up in another generation, I might have just gone into writing rather than medicine - which is not to say that I didn't also have a great attraction towards the idea of being a healer. Fortunately, I've been able to combine the two in ways I could never possibly have imagined. Irvin D. Yalom generation great medicine writing From the very early days of seeing patients, I noticed that many of them seemed to be concerned with issues of their mortality, and so the philosophy training I had taken began to seem rather important to me. Irvin D. Yalom me training important philosophy I wrote my first textbook in 1970. It was called 'The Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy,' and over the years, many students told me that they enjoyed reading it because there were so many stories in there; often just a paragraph or a page of something that happened in a group session. Irvin D. Yalom group me reading practice With almost every book I've written, my secret target audience is the young therapist. In this way, I am staying in my professorial role; I'm writing teaching stories and teaching novels. Irvin D. Yalom i-am writing book way I have a lot of blurring between fiction and non-fiction in so many of my works. For example, my first novel, 'When Nietzsche Wept,' has a great deal of non-fiction in it. I didn't create many characters at all. Almost all of them are historical characters that actually existed. Irvin D. Yalom first create great historical I don't want to be idealized by a patient because of what I've written. Irvin D. Yalom because written patient want I'm a compulsive reader of fiction. I fell in love with novels when I was a teenager. My wife Marilyn and I... our initial friendship began because we are both readers. I've gone to sleep almost every night of my life after having read in a novel for 30 or 40 minutes. I'm a great reader of fiction and much less so of non-fiction. Irvin D. Yalom wife love friendship life Sometime early in life, I developed the notion - one which I have never relinquished - that writing a novel is the very finest thing a person can do. Irvin D. Yalom person never writing life The amount of death terror experienced is closely related to the amount of life unlived. Irvin D. Yalom related terror life death
