“Something came out from my heart into my throat and then into my eyes.”

“Even as the words came out of my mouth, my heart was dying a million deaths.”

“This morning I got up to begin this book I coughed. Something was coming out of my throat: it was strangling me. I broke the thread which held it and yanked it out. I went back to bed and said: I have just spat out my heart.”

“I would have spoken, had my heart not been in my throat”

“The tears stung my nose as the flames licked Mahyah’s body then I froze as my eyes caught on something, lifted to the sky and my breath stuck in my throat as I heard gasps all around, felt the astonished shuffling of bodies and Diandra’s hand came to mine and held tight. This was because, as the flames danced high, arching through the sky over the pyre, there was a brilliant, perfect rainbow.”

“I stared at the phone and swallowed the piece of my heart that was lodged in my throat now.”