“He loved the scratching of pencil against paper when he was focused: it meant something was happening.”

“Tezyeme," he said, which meant something on the order of "it is happening the way it is supposed to happen.”

“Her graphite pencil scratches the thick paper and it is the soundtrack to my bliss. That, and her sound - dissonant, aching. Her breath and heartbeat and pulse are my new favorite symphony; I'm beginning to learn which notes will play when, and to interpret them.”

“He chuckled, shaking his head. "Man, you hunters. I break a pencil and there's hell to pay.""I can see how that's deeply unfair, Chip. Especially if that pencil should try to kill you with it teeth and claws, or launch its brood of a thousand deadly paper clips against you.”

“Sudden moisture burned against the back of his eyelids. He blinked it away before crushing his lips to hers, focusing all of his emotion on the joining of their mouths.No matter what happened tomorrow, he hoped tonight, this moment, would be something she would never forget.”

“After a while he played with the pencil and the paper again and was delighted when he discovered how to make a mark with the one on the other. Various noises continued outside, but he didn't know whether they were real or not. He then talked to his table for a week to see how it would react.”