Facing Death, Oliver Sacks Says He Wants to Live ‘in the Richest, Deepest, Most Productive’ Way

On revealing that he has terminal cancer, the famed neurologist Oliver Sacks has displayed an admirably positive, and even courageous, attitude.

The author of “Awakenings” and “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat” disclosed his illness in an article in The New York Times, saying, “My luck has run out — a few weeks ago I learned that I have multiple metastases in the liver.”

He wrote: “It is up to me now to choose how to live out the months that remain to me. I have to live in the richest, deepest, most productive way I can.”

According to The Guardian, Sacks said “he would no longer watch the evening news, or pay attention to arguments over politics or climate change.”

He admitted he had some fear about dying, and discussed the sadness of seeing friends and loved ones die before him. “Over the last few days, I have been able to see my life as from a great altitude, as a sort of landscape, and with a deepening sense of the connection of all its parts. This does not mean I am finished with life,” he wrote. “On the contrary, I feel intensely alive, and I want and hope in the time that remains to deepen my friendships, to say farewell to those I love, to write more.”

— Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly.