I am in my mother's room. It's I who live there now. I don't know how I got there.
-- Molloy (chapter 1)

Importance: The opening words of Molloy's section, they establish immediately the state of confusion that is to follow Molloy throughout the narrative.

To decompose is to live too, I know, I know, don't torment me, but one sometimes forgets.
-- Molloy (chapter 1)

Importance: This quote points to a major theme in the novel, namely, the physical deterioration of the body, and more so, that all of life is essentially a process of decomposition - a state of suffering until death. Molloy suggests that forgetting this fact is essential to carrying on with life.

Saying is inventing. Wrong, very rightly wrong. You invent nothing, you think you are inventing, you think you are escaping, and all you do is stammer out your lesson, the remnants of a pensum one day got by heart and long forgotten, life...
-- Molloy (chapter 1)