"When you have an asthma attack, you can’t
breathe. When you can’t breathe, you can hardly talk. To make a
sentence all you get is the air in your lungs. Which isn’t much. Three
to six words, if that. You learn the value of words. You rummage
through the jumble in your head. Choose the crucial ones—those cost you
too. Let healthy people toss out whatever comes to mind, the way you
throw out the garbage. When an asthmatic says “I love you,” and when an
asthmatic says “I love you madly,” there’s a difference. The
difference of a word. A word’s a lot. It could be stop, or inhaler. It could even be ambulance."
From The Girl On The Fridge by Etgar Keret
