It's funny: since I was little, I knew I was meant to live differently from others, I just wasn't sure how or why.
-- Lillian (Pages 1 - 65)

Importance: Lillian writes this in a letter to Sam Decker shortly after arriving in New York. In perhaps one of her most vulnerable moments, this line speaks to Lillian's deepest longings and aspirations. Though she is young at this point in the novel, still developing her artistic and personal identities, Lillian knows that she must live outside the conventions prescribed her. Th passage speaks to each of Lillian's decisions across the novel and her life, her desire to achieve and capture something other than her world expects of her.

...I think Lillian's portraits were a way for her to study what lay at the core of people—their bodies, but also their fears, hopes, disappointments—to prepare herself for spotting those things out in the world.
-- Narrator/Samantha (Pages 1 - 65)

Importance: Samantha says...