The Southern Reach had become a backward, backwater agency, guarding a dormant secret that no one seemed to care much about anymore, given the focus on terrorism and ecological collapse.
-- Control (chapter 001)

Importance: This is Control’s initial assessment of the Southern Reach, and he believes that he’s been sent in to make the facility more successful, or to dismantle it.

Never do something for just one reason,” his grandpa had told him more than once, and that, at least, Control had taken to heart.
-- Control (chapter 001)

Importance: Control is contemplating and rationalizing his reasons for interrogating ONLY the Biologist from the expedition. His ex-agent grandfather had always told him that in order to be successful that he needed to shut off his emotions and focus on the facts.

The border extended about seventy miles inland from the lighthouse and approximately forty miles east and forty miles west along the coast. It ended just below...
-- Control (chapter 004)