Oliver Sacks: I think my parents were puzzled. When I finished my training, and I was 32, I went into a chronic disease hospital — institution. And I think my parents were both rather surprised at that, because their contact had especially been with patients in the real world. But at that point, I think I needed to see people who had spent much of their lives in institutions of this sort. I think when I got deeper and deeper into contact with my Awakenings patients, they saw that this was a different sort of medicine. Different from theirs, but romantic in its own way, dedicated in its own way. So I think they were sort of worried. I remember when my first book came out — Migraine — on the day of publication, my father burst into the room. He was trembling. He was ashen. He was holding The Times of London. He says, “There’s an article about you in the newspaper. There’s an article about the book.” And although the article was a very nice article and sort of said kind things about the book, my father was actually somewhat shocked, because the notion was that, as a doctor, you should have a low profile. You shouldn’t publish. And for years after that, I always misread the word “publishable” as “punishable.” There was quite a lot of ambivalence, and again, I wasn’t sure myself of the proprieties of telling the stories of my patients. Even though I would get formal consent, this involves an exposure or a disclosure. I’ve had this concern all the time, but I can only hope that if one writes with appreciation and delicacy and respect, then it’s okay. I have to say that I’ve written a hundred times as much as I’ve published, because if there’s any thought of offense or embarrassment, then I will put the thing quietly away.