“Okay, let me get a pen." There were rustling noises. "I can't find one." More noises. "Okay,shoot.""You found a pen?""No, but I have a can of Cheez Whiz. I'll write your number on the counter with it, then find a pen and copy it."Jaine recited her number and listened to the spewing noise as Shelley Cheez-Whizzed it on her countertop.”
“Get crazy with the Cheez Whiz.”
“It was a cheesy cheeseball, covered with Cheez Whiz and served on a bed of Cheez-Its. With a side of queso.”
“All the inane, meaningless noises people make that pass for intelligent conversation. They might as well be pigs grunting in the pen. (92)”
“Reading was what I needed to beat back all that noise and silence, those horrible silences. . . .An ink pen was the only way to carve a voice out of the air and have others hear it.”
“I'll be writing as long as I can hold a pen in my curled, crimped arthritic hands and then I'll dictate it, if it comes to that. They'll have to pry my pen out of my cold, dead fingers - and even then, I'll fight 'em for it. Guaranteed.”