“My father said writing was a nice hobby. He strongly encouraged my bro...” — Tess Gerritsen Quote

My father said writing was a nice hobby. He strongly encouraged my brother and me to become doctors.

I have hidden my race for 22 books. I have hidden behind my married name, which is very Caucasian, because I didn't feel safe coming out with it. I didn't feel that the market would really accept me. I think I felt it's time to start bringing in an Asian-American point of view.

Writing is very much an emotional process; it requires you to be very in touch with your feelings. That is the opposite of what you're taught as a medical doctor. We're supposed to be detached and logical. Maybe because I started off as a writer and then became a doctor, I'm able to integrate those two.

I'm Asian-American, and I was the only Chinese girl growing up in a white school in San Diego. So I understood what it was like to be different, to always want to fit in and never feel like you ever could.

I am fit at 88 years of age. I do yoga and also go jogging 2-3 times which has kept me fit and healthy even at this ripe age in which many people keep seeing doctors.

During the day, I was a doctor. At night, you know, I was a comic. And it was really just to let off some steam. It just became my golf, you know, in many ways. Most doctors have golf as a hobby. Mine was doing comedy.

I've had six different doctors say that I had to take the stress, the pressure out of my life.

In Paris, the doctors had struggled to make sense of my symptoms - anemia, fatigue and persistent infections. They ran test after test - I was even hospitalized for a week - but the results were inconclusive.