A biography would be an insult to the way I have chosen to live. It’s not that I am a private person; I am not a person at all.
-- X (Part I: 7-60)

Importance: This quote lays out X's belief that she ought not have a biography written about her, one that C.M. struggles against throughout the novel. It also brings to light the ideology behind X's frequent attempts to erase her history or destroy the idea that she can be contained within one person.

People are, it seems, too complicated to sit still inside a narrative, but that hasn’t stopped anyone from trying, desperately trying, to compact a life into pages.
-- C.M. (Part I: 7-60)

Importance: This frustrated statement from C.M. embodies the experience of writing a biography; she cannot seem to pin X down. But the quote also speaks to her own unreliability as a narrator, since she, too, is "moving around" as she...