Fleur took the small roads, the rutted paths through the woods traversing slough edge and heavy underbrush, trackless, unmapped, unknown, and always bearing east. She took the roads that the deer took, trails that hadn’t had a name yet … she took the roads she had to make herself, chopping alder and flattening reeds.
-- Narration (Nanapush)  (Chapter One, “The Roads”)

Importance: This quote, from the earliest paragraphs of the book, are a metaphoric representation of several different journeys taken by the character. There is her physical journey from the Native American reservation she calls home to the city of Minneapolis, where she intends to take revenge on the man who stole her land. There are also metaphorical foreshadowings of her journey into revenge, marriage, and eventually into healing.

… what is a man, what are we all, but bits of time caught for a moment in a tangle of blood, bones, skin, and brain? [Fleur] was time. Mauser...
-- Narration (Nanapush)  (Chapter Three, “Medicine”)