Poe was always doing these things. He'd nearly gone to jail for beating up a kid from Donora, he was still on probation for it. He can't resist a fight, not something you understand. Probably it's not his fault. Probably you can't be as big as him without having some kind of robot mentality.
-- Narrator (Book 1, Chapter 1 paragraph 161)

Importance: This passage describes Poe's propensity towards violence and foreshadows the fight he has with the homeless men. It's a good example of the herky-jerky narrative style with its run-on sentences and semi-stream of consciousness delivery. It also reveals a certain fatalism. According to the narrator, Poe was fated for violence because he was a big guy. He was born into it.

Basis of everything, he thought. Pick your own over a stranger. Dead Swede for living Poe. Ten dead Swedes or a hundred. Long as it's the enemy. Ask any general. Ask any priest – millions die...
-- Narrator (Book 1, Chapter 3 paragraph 14)