They were slung across one another every which way, three corpses in a pile.
-- Narrator (Page 1)

Importance: This quote describes the Minister's three suits he sees as he takes inventory of his belongings before leaving for the airport. Here, even though readers are not privy to the Minister's dark past, the author uses the word "corpses" to describe the suits, subtly attaching the Minister to violence and death. Furthermore, the use of this word helps establish the Minister's skewed perspective as he perceives the loss of his material belongings to be equivalent to death.

Why was her hair so sparse? There was only a year or two between them. But, of course, he had never felt old and, consequently, had never looked it. A clear case, in the Minister's view, of the importance of mind over matter.
-- Narrator (Page 2)

Importance: This quote, which uses free indirect discourse to communicate the Minister's thoughts as he looks at...