Little kids still have hearts, you know."
-- Mia (Chapters 1-3)

Importance: This quote from Mia, an unlikely source of compassion, speaks to the significance of the lives lived by small children, an idea that ties into the novel's broader reckoning with trauma and its impact on adult experience. Though Mia is defending the idea that Eddie's decision to break up with her and begin seeing Sammy had an impact on her, the quote reverberates throughout the novel's themes.

You idolize something that did not exist."
-- Hazel's Mother (Chapters 4-6)

Importance: This quote from Hazel's mother probes at the boundaries of whether or not the girlhood experienced by the central characters in Brutes was a good one. Hazel's mother insists that Hazel's fixation on the past is unhealthy and rootless, while Hazel seems to feel as though there are important tethers to her girlhood that continue to have relevance once she becomes an adult. As such, Tate uses this disagreement...