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Facing my own death brought an instant sense of clarity and purpose.

My intent was to carry out my duty as a doctor, to end their suffering. Unfortunately, that entailed, in their cases, ending of the life.

For most of my life, I did deliberately lead a private life and inadvertently led a public life.

When my brother passed away... I made a decision that I might die soon, and if I die, I want people to know who I really am.

My father died of brain cancer in 1991. I do not know anyone whose life has not been touched by the loss of a loved one to cancer. I wrote my book 'Gracefully Gone' about my father's fight and my struggle growing up with an ill parent. I wrote it to help others know they are not alone in this all-too-often insurmountable war against cancer.

So many people had been asking me to write an autobiography, or threatening to write my biography without any input from me, that I thought I'd better tell my story before other people told it for me.

I wanted to tell my story in a way I haven't done before, things I've been going through in my life.

I decided to write books, just to prove to myself that I was still alive, if nothing else.

My second wife, the mother of one of my sons, died of murder. I was not with her, but I could have saved her. I think.

I was darkly convinced that at age 52 I would kill myself because my mother committed suicide at that age. I was fantasizing that she was waiting for me on the other side of the grave.