No, it was not her only mistake, but it was certainly her greatest, as others have great loves, great ideas, or great tragedies that befall them. All else Janey could do would pale beside this error. She could kill a man. She could drown herself in a bucket. She could fail to obstruct a politician who would go on to torture millions.
-- Janey (chapter 1)

Importance: Upon arriving in Iowa, Janey believes she has made a colossal mistake leaving her mother to meet her father, and that her life will never recover from this great error. This is a comical quote because it captures the dramatic lens through which many teenage girls view the world, but this also truly will be a significant turning point in Janey's life. When her mother dies, her father is granted custody of her, and Janey spends years wondering how things might have been different if she had never...