Derek Shepherd quotes from Grey's Anatomy

Derek

Bailey's back? That's excellent. [Hurries to the door but stops when he looks in the window] And her cervix is being examined by my wife, which is a, which is a visual I will never get out of my head. Thanks for the warning.

Derek

[to Meredith] I'm in love with you. I've been in love you with you forever. I'm a little late- I know I'm a little late in telling you that. I just, I just want you take your time, you know? Take all the time you need because you have a choice to make. And when I had a choice to make... I chose wrong.

Derek

[voiceover] Ask most surgeons why they became surgeons and they usually tell you the same thing. It was for the high, the rush, the thrill that comes from cutting someone open and saving their life. For me it was different, maybe it was because I grew up in a house with four sisters. No, definitely because I grew up in a house with four sisters because it was the quiet that drew me to surgery. The operating room is a quiet place. Peaceful. It has to be in order for us to stay alert, anticipate complications. When you stand in the OR, your patient open on the table, all the world's noise, all the worry that it brings disappears. A calm settles over you, time passing without thought. For that moment, you feel completely at peace.

Derek

[voiceover] Ask most surgeons why they became surgeons and they usually tell you the same thing. The high, the rush, the thrill of the cut. For me it was the quiet. Peace isn't a permanent state. It exists in moments. Fleeting. Gone before we even knew it was there. We can experience it at any time, in a stranger's act of kindness, a task that requires complete focus or simply the comfort of an old routine. Everyday we all experience these moments of peace. The trick is to know when they're happening so that we can embrace them, live in them. And finally let them go.

Derek

[voiceover] We ask a lot of our patients. We put them to sleep. Cut them open. Poke around in their brains and guts with sharp instruments. We ask for their blind trust. Irony is, trust is hard for surgeons, because we're trained from day one that we can't trust anyone but ourselves. The only instincts you can count on are your own. The only skills you can count on are your own. Until one day, you'll leave the classroom and step into the O.R. You're surrounded by others, a team of others. A team that you have to rely on whether you trust them or not.

Derek

I know it's been a long day, and you're all anxious to get home. But I feel like we got off on the wrong foot this morning. I don't expect to win your trust overnight. But I want each of you to know you have mine. Which is why I felt it was important to personally come in here and apologize. [voiceover] I want to clear some things up. I am neither pro nor anti merger. From this point on, everyone has a clean slate. I am not focused on the past. I'm looking to the future to all the promise this hospital has to offer. I plan to honor Richard Webber and his legacy, not undo it, which is why I'm both humbled and honored to be your new Chief of Surgery.

Derek

I know your loss. I lost my father when I was a kid. Two guys killed my father for his watch right in front of me. Right in front of me. I didn't become a doctor because I wanted to be God. I became a doctor because I wanted to save lives. Look at me. Please look at me in the eye. I'm a human being. I make mistakes. I'm flawed. We all are. Today, I think for you is just a mistake. You want justice. You want somebody to pay. You're a good man. I can see that in your eyes. Can you see it in mine? Can you?

Derek

[voiceover] The human life is made up of choices. Yes or no. In or out. Up or down. And then there are the choices that matter. To love or hate. To be a hero or to be a coward. To fight or to give in. To live. Or die. Live or die. That's the important choice. And it's not always in our hands.

Derek

[voiceover] Yes or no. In or out. Up or down. Live or die. Hero or coward. Fight or give in. I'll say it again to make sure you hear me. The human life is made up of choices. Live or die. That's the important choice. And it's not always in our hands.

Derek

Doctor Yang and my wife sometimes have sleepovers, in my bed, with me in it.

Derek

[to Miranda] You've seen me mad. I hang out in the woods and I drink myself into a stupor. But the thing I've learned from hiding out is, it doesn't work.

Derek

[voice over] Researchers are currently working on a map of the human brain. It may be the most complex map ever created. Billions of neurons making trillions of connections. At first glance, they seem completely random. But there's nothing random about them. All these connections have to happen in a specific pattern. It is designed for a function. These connections determine everything about us. What we love, what we hate, what we say, what we do. [speaking] Every action we take.

Derek

[to Meredith] Spending time with the kids is not a consolation prize. It is the prize.

Derek

[voice over] We are just starting to learn the extent of the brain's connections. How far they reach, how deep they go. But we know that every connection matters. Every connection is crucial. And when one is broken, it usually means some damage has been done. This system of connections tells us to act and choose and behave. Sometimes seemingly against our own will. But it is not random at all. It is the map of who we are. We will work to understand ourselves, solve the puzzle. How all the connections work and all the pieces fit.

Derek

[to Amelia] Did Mom tell you I went to go see her? She said I was tired and miserable, which I was. Told me to get it together. She said: “Derek, take a good, hard look at your life. If it’s not working, shut up and fix it.”