Perhaps you would also make a snap judgment about a woman who decides to reveal her innermost secrets to a stranger for money. But suspend your assumptions, at least for now.
-- Narrator - Jess (Preface)

Importance: Jess speaks in this quote to Shields, as well as the reader, about the danger of making assumptions. In the end, both Jess and Shields made assumptions about each other. Shields assumed that Jess would do anything for money. Jess assumed that Shields was honest in her offers of compassion and friendship.

Sometimes an impulsive decision can change the course of your life. I don’t want that to happen again.
-- Narrator - Jess (Chapter 1)

Importance: Jess refers in this quote to the impulsive decision that she made to leave her little sister Becky home alone while she went to the corner market. While Jess was gone, Becky fell out of a second-floor window. Jess worries that her decision to take Taylor’s place...