Meredith Grey quotes from Grey's Anatomy

Meredith

[opening voice over] On an operating table, a person is at his most vulnerable. Naked. Exposed. Skin is not a very tough armor. It's soft, easily broken.

Meredith

[ending voice over] Surgeons are bred to be invulnerable. It's very hard to lay ourselves bare, because we know exactly how deep some injuries can go. But vulnerability isn't the opposite of strength. It's a necessary part. We have to force ourselves to open up, to expose ourselves. To offer up everything we have and just pray that it's good enough. Otherwise, we'll never succeed.

Meredith

[opening voice over] This is how my mother wanted to be remembered. My memory of her is a little bit different. I'm sure everyone remembers their own version of her. Versions I wouldn't even recognize. It's all that's really left of someone when they're gone. But that's the tricky thing. Nobody's memory is perfect or complete. We jumble things up. We lose track of time. We are in one place and another. And it all feels like one long, inescapable moment. It's just like my mother used to say: The carousel never stops turning.

Meredith

[opening voice over] Trauma is messy. Chaotic. Looking at a body that's been reduced to a bloody pulp, it might seem difficult to know where to start. Luckily, some very clever person developed a protocol: the ABCs. Airway, breathing, circulation. The ABCs keep your patient alive so you can figure out how to tackle the rest of the mess. If only all of life's problems could be solved with an intubation tube.

Meredith

[ending voice over] The ABCs of trauma are a handy tool for keeping a patient alive, but they're only a starting point. Once the patient's airway, breathing, and circulation are all clear and accounted for, the real work begins. The messy work. There's no telling how long it's gonna take to clean up that chaos once you've begun, because sometimes, you don't know what you're in for. You don't know exactly what you're about to face. You don't know what secrets the body in front of you holds and whether, by the time it's all over, if there's anything left worth saving.

Meredith

[opening voice over] They say life doesn't give you second chances. But we do. Surgeons do. You break a bone, we put it back together. You bleed, we make it stop. You flatline, we resuscitate you. But as much as we give people second chances, surgeons don't usually get them, because the kind of mistakes we make, are sometimes impossible to recover from.

Meredith

[ending voice over] It's hard to give second chances. It's even harder to ask for them. A chance to do it again, knowing what you know now, what you've learned. A chance to do it completely differently. A chance to right our wrongs, to try and correct our mistakes. A chance to try and start over, from scratch.

Meredith

[ending voice over] Nobody's memory is perfect or complete. We jumble things up. We lose track of time. We are in one place... then another and it all feels like one long, inescapable moment. So, what does it mean? What do we take away? Which pieces will haunt us? Hurt us? End us? Inspire us? It's just like my mother used to say, the carousel never stops turning. You can't get off.

Meredith

[opening voice over] When exposed to trauma, the body deploys its own defence system. From the first second the brain receives the signal that a catastrophe has happened, the blood rushes to the organs that need help the most. Blood floods into the muscles, the lungs, the heart, the brain. The brain makes a decision for the rest of the body. Either face the danger or run away. It's a mechanism designed to protect the body from harm. From knowing that what has happened might be irreparable, we call it 'shock'.

Meredith

[ending voice over] When shock wears off, when the body can accept that a trauma has happened, when it can let down its defenses, it's a scary moment. It's vulnerable. The shock response had protected us, and it just might have saved us.

Meredith

[opening voice over] They found this guy in Maine who had been living completely alone in the woods for 30 years, they called him the last true hermit. 30 years without the warmth of human touch, without conversation. The hermit felt more lonely when he was out in the world than he ever felt in the woods by himself. Surrounded by people but drowning in solitude.

Meredith

[ending voice over] The last true hermit was found and dragged out of hiding and into the world. Most might find his existence sad but the hermit knew something we didn't. He knew that when it comes down to it, even when you’re with someone or in the noisy rush of people, it’s just you. The one you can count on and lean on and depend on. It has to be you and once you figure that out, being alone becomes a choice.

Meredith

[opening voice over] Everybody has something to hide. We can't just expose all our secrets to the world. That's how we get hurt. That's how we risk hurting other people. We have to decide how much we let out and keep the truth to ourselves.

Meredith

[ending voice over] It's scary to reveal everything about ourselves. Fear makes us hold ourselves back. Is that so wrong? Maybe. Probably. But still. It helps to be a little sneaky, a little protective. It's not safe to just blurt out all of your secrets. We can't just lay all the truth out there. Expose ourselves to God and everybody. 'Cause once the truth is out, we have to face it ourselves.

Meredith

[opening voice over] Your kids. Your keys. Your family photo album. It's the list you repeat in your head before you fall asleep. It's the short list of things you'd grab in case of disaster. The list makes you feel in control. Your kids. Your keys. Your family photo album. When the fire starts, when the tsunami hits, when the earth literally quakes, do you remember your list? Or do you just duck and cover?