Then he calmly chomped the pencil in half, chewed up the graphite along with the splinters, and swallowed the whole mouthful with a husky gulp.
-- Narrator (chapter 1)

Importance: This quote describes what Smoke did to Mrs. Starch’s pencil when she waved it in front of his face. It is significant because this action embodies what people use to judge him. He intimidates people. He is not smart. He is also wild and likely to take rash actions to get back at people. This encounter with Mrs. Starch also gives people reason to believe that he started the wildfire in order to get even with her. As people use the eating of the pencil to judge him, it supports the theme that people make errors when they judge people based on their past behavior as Smoke did not set the wildfire and he grows during the course of the narrative.

Spaghetti, spaghetti, spaghetti...
-- Nick's mother (chapter 2)