736 entries.
Sue Reinke
from South Bend, Indiana
Dear Dr. Sacks,
I Just finished On The Move. I am 86 and could not put it down. You write with an explosive attitude, what a life you have had! It was a singular life since you were alone in some respects, and there was a little time for love and not enough. Writing has been your life, lover, companion and nemesis.
Thank you for all your work.
Sue Reinke
Teel Lunsford
from Fort Worth, Texas
Dr. Sacks,
I'm presently reading your autobiography "On The Move" and enjoying it immensely! I have read "Awakenings" and "The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat" also. I had a natural healing practice in Dallas for 20 years and was always fascinated and awed by how the body responds to the brain but moreover how the body responds to emotion. Reading your books has been very helpful to me through the years in my applications in helping people make a mind-body-emotional connection.
I thank you for your vast knowledge, care, and unshakable commitment to everything that lives and breathes. I featured you in my column 'Men I Love' on my website/blog, 'Pauline's Smile'. I hope you will give it a look. I send you my deepest admiration, healing thoughts and prayers Dr. Sacks.
Teel
p.s. In my next life I wish to come back as an octopus!
Valerie Pritchard
from Durham NC
Dear Dr. Sacks,
In 1997 I was a "mature" American exchange student, almost 50 y.o., studying for an undergraduate degree in London. I saw a BBC series called The Mind Traveller, about you and six fascinating stories of neurological disorders. It was my first introduction to you and your work. Since then I've read your books (I recently finished On the Move) and articles in the New Yorker. I just listened to your interview on Radiolab. You are a wonderful gift to us all, an inspiration, a joy, and a marvelous human being.
Thank you for everything.
Valerie
Rebecca
from Denver and Jerusalem
Dear Dear Dr. Sacks,
Since your news in Feb I have slowly, in my way, been parting from you....saying goodbye from afar. I have been re-reading through the many books from which I have gained so much from your astounding astuteness, your wisdom, your eloquence, vulnerability, your generosity of spirit...from the essence of your 'you-ness', from your storied life.
Please know you are so cherished and beloved by so many of us out there who wish so deeply to have had the joy and honor of meeting you. We have made due with the gift of meeting your incredibly brilliant mind and gorgeous heart through your insightful teachings/writings.
As a fellow Jew, Orthodox, I have a special appreciation for your moments shared of childhood nostalgia, especially Shabbat/Shabbas. What a great soul you are! What a great gift you have been! Blessings to you friend. Blessings to you. And somewhere inside I hope you can hear or catch an echo of a 'nigun' here or there that someone out there has been sending to you... a little Old World melody to envelop you... sending you off on the road to whatever comes next. With affection and gratitude for you dear doctor.
Ethan B. Ruben, MD, FAAP
from Pisgah, AL
Dr. Sacks,
I came upon your name, career, and massive diverse work quite by accident this morning. The connections were a brief abstract in Lancet, my cousin's work with the Tourettes Foundation, and my own Parkinson's Disease. Now I shall begin to read your books and will write again. Meanwhile I have added you to our MiSheberich list. Delighted to make your acquaintance.
Ethan Baruch Ruben, MD
Roy
from Victoria, British Columbia
Dear Dr. Sacks,
I was both amused and provoked into thought by the story of Carmel and Robert De Niro in "On the Move", and how Carmel believed that the person she'd seen in your house was a double sent by the studio, instead of the genuine Mr. De Niro.
I'd once met such a double at a party; in this case it was of a famous tennis player, and he was quite identical in every respect, except for height, with the original. When the tennis player's PR Agency sent him forth to be photographed by the paparazzi, it was always in sitting position.
But interestingly and coincidentally, I came to discover your writing through a lookalike. I wouldn't have recognised Oliver Sacks in 2011, but I did recognise a lookalike of Robin Williams with beard in his role for "Awakenings". I'd been enrolled in a training program, and I was being urged and prodded to ally myself with this person in a business and mentoring-type of relationship.
I discovered that this person was intended to be a father-like-figure for me. Unfortunately, he had neither the intellectual caliber nor the likability of you or Mr. Williams, and hence those dubious ministrations failed to create a bond.
However, I became curious and began to delve into your writing. Perhaps there's a silver lining in even the most ham-handed of interventions.
Kind Regards
claudia lucena
from são paulo, Brazil
Dear Oliver,
I became a reader of yours in 1995 when I was introduced to the book "the man who mistook his wife for a hat." In épocaa I was a student of occupational therapy and today, 20 years later, you still key figure in my personal and professional training.
When you came to Brazil in sao paulo I lived there and have your autograph in the book "awakenings". I'm reading your autobiography and I'm proud for my choice to have you as a "guru" in the sense of having guided my work as an occupational therapist. Working with people with disabilities, I always try to think not the disability that the individual has, but of the individual who has that disability, valuing the singularities of the stories in context. A big hug. Claudia.
PS: sorry for my english, because, like you, I have difficulty learning other languages.
Ann Simpson
from Hot Springs Village
Hello,
I just want to thank you for writing the book, Migraine. It explained so much of a malady I experienced for years, unknown to me, until finally a doctor diagnosed it.
Ann Simpson
Athina
from Greece
Dear Dr. Sacks,
I am reading "on the move" and enjoying it very much. I never have imagined you had such an extraordinary, adventurous life. We should all learn from you not to be afraid to live. I wish all doctors could approach their patients with the boldness, enthusiasm and humanity that you have.
Thank you for all your extraordinary books; I especially want to thank you for your choice not to just publish in scientific journals for your career, but to make your discoveries and experiences open for everyone, thus inspiring so many people. You made a difference, I hope you know that!
Kind regards,
Athina
Patricia
from Victoria British Columbia Canada
Dr. Sacks,
I am speechless. I am having trouble finding the words to express my feelings in response to your book, On the Move. I guess my best would be to say I feel love and gratitude. Your book has reminded me of the importance of accepting the differences in ourselves and others. Only through this will we experience peace.
Thank you for your deep caring for people of many differences and for your openness about your own journey.
Alexandra H
from Portsmouth, United Kingdom
Dear Dr. Sacks,
I have only learned of your work in the past year, and I couldn't possibly be more thankful; I carry you with me in my backpack, and I love each and every case, and grow fond for each person you tell us about. I have an exceptionally terrible memory, and so I'll forever re-read your work and forever be captivated by it.
I cannot thank you enough for simply being who you are in this world and for sharing so much of your knowledge with everyone.
I was never one for non-fiction work but since I first read 'The man who mistook his wife for a hat', my preferred read has been on neurology. Thank you!
Kind Regards,
Alex H, 21
Sharon
from brunswick
Dear Dr. Sacks,
I have watched the movie Awakenings many times and often thought about your incredible kindness to others. I still am amazed at the kindness you have so willingly poured out for others. God bless you, sir.
Suzanne Bounds
from Willow, Alaska
Dear Dr. Sacks,
I first "met" you through your book Seeing Voices in the 1990's when I was working as an Interpreter for the Deaf. I delighted in your discovery process and enthusiasm for learning about Deaf Culture and ASL. I have enjoyed many of your other books, and have learned so much from you, both in the information you share as well as the deep compassion that you have for others. You have given so much to the world through your work as a physician, researcher, author, teacher, advocate and friend. Thank you for sharing your gifts with us!
I am so sorry that you are ill, and I will keep you and Billy in my heart and prayers.
With deep respect and affection,
Suzanne
Regina Kaye Russell
from Charlottetown
Dear Dr. Sacks,
There are people in this world who do magic, who enter into the frontier of the yet-to-be-uncovered. You, Dr. Sacks, have held your secrets and treasures out in your beautiful, strong hands for the rest of us to see. I have followed your work for years, eager to know what you have been up to, reading your books at every opportunity. You are my teacher. We will never fill the void that your passing will create, or have the same light in our universe in your absence.
Thank you for sharing your gifts and your truth with the world.
You, Dr. Sacks, have always
Jackie
from Concord, NH
Dear Dr. Sacks,
Thank you so much for your wonderful ongoing writing. One line in your essay "My Periodic Table" pained me, when you said you were comforted by "the sense that (despite everything) I may have lived a good and useful life." That qualifier... I hope you are as kind to yourself when you examine your own life as you have always been to those whose lives you have studied and shared. To me, your life seems beautiful and exemplary in so many ways, never more so than now.
Mary-Ann Bieksza
from Bernardsville, NJ
Dr. Sacks,
I read your piece in the NYTimes, Sunday Review on 8/16/15.
I'm troubled to hear of your impending death. I have so enjoyed your work and writings. So few physicians engage in medical story-telling anymore. In a very strange way, this time that you have been given has allowed you to explore and to share your transition.
Have a peaceful transition my friend, I will miss your words in the future. They have meant a great deal in my past.
Bibiq
Dear Dr. Sacks,
Sooooo sexy, that cover photo for On the Move. Fabulous choice and God bless the editor or whomever choose it.
I've just finished your memoir and I've been raving about it ever since to anyone who would listen. And incidentally, once I started it, I did nothing else but read until I got to the last page. Literally! Best memoir I've read, I think.
There was something that spoke to my heart on every page--qualities of the associative thinker, Hume as favorite philospher, Robin W description of you as combination of Albert Schwitzer and Arnold Schwartzenegger.....
Thank you for your kindness, wisdom, perseverence, and love. And sexiness--physical beauty, huge smarts, and nice!
With great affection,
Bibiq
Jean Crichton
from Summit, New Jersey
Dear Dr. Sacks,
Thank you so much for your work, your books and your open kind nature, which pulses through everything I know about you. I've read several of your books, most recently On the Move, and I was so touched by your approach of pursuing serious scientific inquiry while continuing to help individual people and write non-judgmentally about their idiosyncracies. Your empathy with your patients makes me feel as if I know you too.
Just now reading your essay on Sabbath in the New York Times, I hear you saying goodbye, and I wish it were not so. You have touched many lives.
Thank you.
Marion Slater
from Queensbury, New York, 12804
Dear Dr. Sacks,
It is not often that an article in The New York Times brings me to tears, but I was so touched by your essay on the Sabbath--its honesty, warmth, clarity-- that I cried all morning. Indeed, it has compelled me to read longer works by you, especially your recent memoir. The fact that there is so much trouble in the world and that the Sabbath offers peace is both inspiring and reassuring to even an Italian Christian like myself. Indeed, you have crossed both ethnic and religious boundaries in your article, and I thank you for that.
Lane Ferst
from Davis CA
Thank you for your gentle spirit and your brilliant writings. You are an inspiration and loved by millions. I hope you know as well as feel all the gratitude and love beaming your way.
