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At the WTO, it's never a general surgery. It's always a very specific, clinical, precise surgery - and you can't miss the target. If you miss the target, you kill the patient. It's as simple as that.

Going to war against Iran - whether one calls such a move 'surgical' or 'total' - would be an extremely serious undertaking; with worldwide economic, military, diplomatic and human ramifications in both the short- and the long-term.

You want to ensure people can do it right 99 percent of time. When we have to fire one of our surgical trainees, it is never because they don't have the physical skills but because they don't have the moral skills - to practise and admit failure.

It has been suggested at various times that I should start an operation in the United Kingdom but - bearing in mind my age and medical history - I think this would be not a very sensible way to go forward.

Constant attention by a good nurse may be just as important as a major operation by a surgeon.

Surgery is a complicated thing to talk about, but I guess it could also be a dangerous thing to play with if you're not very secure about what you're doing.

My basic feeling about military intervention is that it should be a last resort, undertaken only to stave off large-scale bloodshed.

Of all the surgeries I've had, there's not much left to operate on. I am totally bionic.

The overarching issue, really, is our surgeon general should be able to communicate transparently and honestly with the American public on all issues.