I call him by his first name to maintain the distance he's carved out between us, same as the distance between Mother Earth and space. Me and that man are atoms, exploded out of the same haze. Ablaze in different zones...Yet, when I'm sick, he makes ginger tea and fish soup, spicy-hot with red bells of Scotch bonnet peppers...God, it feels good to be ill dem days. He can be caring, but more often he's cruel. What do I make of a man who carried on dem ways, his heart locked in a cage?
-- Yamaye (1: Follow the Smoke)

Importance: This quote shows the contradictions and layers in the complex relationship Yamaye has with her father. She craves distance from him, both emotionally and physically, yet she is also desperate to be closer to him. She is still resentful, understandably so, about how he was physically and emotionally abusive to her during her childhood...