Marriage meant forever.
-- Narrator (Fates, Chapter 1 paragraph 6)

Importance: Having been married in secret, Lotto and Mathilde are at the shore in Maine. Lotto, who has dealt with loss and people falling away from him in his life, hopes that his marriage to Mathilde will be different. He cannot imagine ever losing her or being without her, which is why marriage has been so important to him. Marriage means she is his forever.

Lotto felt sick that matrimony could seem so cheap to some people.
-- Narrator (Fates, Chapter 5 paragraph 74)

Importance: Chollie and Danica surprisingly end up married. Danica, however, goes on to cheat on Chollie which makes Lotto reflect sadly on how some people can take marriage for granted. Lotto’s own marriage to Mathilde is a strong and good marriage, and it is something to which Lotto is wholly committed.

It could have been so great.
-- Mathilde (Fates, Chapter 6 paragraph 9)

Importance: Mathilde here comments on the opera that Lotto and Leo had been writing over...