“I never talked about you much." I said to Hardy. My voice sounded odd to my own ears.Hardy stared into my eyes and nodded, understanding that some things mean toomuch to be expressed easily.”

“I think, uh, I might be in love with you," I said, my voice sounding gruff and awkward even to my own ears.”

“I see no reason to keep silent about my enjoyment of the sound of my own voice as I work. ”

“Before the bat could answer, the mockingbird exclaimed angrily: "You sound as if there were something wrong with imitating things!""Oh no," the bat said."Well then, you sound as if there something wrong with driving them off. It's my territory, isn't it? If you can't drive things off your own territory what can you do?"The bat didn't know what to say; after a minute the chipmunk said uneasily, "He just meant it's odd to drive them all off and then imitate them so well too.""Odd!" cried the mockingbird. "Odd! If I didn't it really would be odd. Did you ever hear of a mockingbird that didn't?"The bat said politely, "No indeed. No, it's just what mockingbirds do do. That's really why I made up the poem about it--I admire mockingbirds so much, you know."The chipmunk said, "He talks about them all the time.""A mockingbird's sensitive," said the mockingbird; when he said sensitive his voice went way up and way back down. "They get on my nerves. You just don't understand how much they get on my nerves. Sometimes I think if I can't get rid of them I'll go crazy.""If they didn't get on your nerves so, maybe you wouldn't be able to imitate them so well, the chipmunk said in a helpful, hopeful voice.”

“Eve said, in a high, squeaky, airless voice, “The ghost! You’re the ghost Miranda was talking about! Oh my God, Michael, you’re the ghost! You bastard!”He nodded, still concentrating on breathing.Eve got control of her voice and squealed, “That is without a doubt the coolest damn thing I have ever seen in my entire life!”

“Camilla, you…my God,” he whispered against my skin, his voice sounding oddly strained. “Sweetheart, do you even know? You’re so perfect and you don’t even realize.”The endearment seeped into me like a touch, warming me as much as his body did. “Did I say a good thing, Professor?”“Oh, you said an amazing thing. Tonight I’m going to make very, very sure you know how much it means to me.”