Mukherjee's most moving story was about Steve, a thirty-six-year-old plumber from North Boston with esophageal cancer who arrived for his ninth round of chemotherapy and simply said: 'I don't want to fight this war. I want a cookie.' The young Dr. Mukherjee got him a mint chocolate chip cookie, told him to go home, and come back next week. The story illustrated the second, most intimate form of listening — truly hearing another human being, not just their words but their exhaustion, their dignity, their need to be treated as a person rather than a patient. Steve lived for twenty-four additional months and got to see his oldest son graduate from high school. But Mukherjee knew that if he had pushed too hard that morning — if he had insisted on the protocol instead of listening — he would have lost Steve entirely. 'The art of doctoring is negotiating with hope' became the line the audience remembered.