A naked child, covered in ash, walking dazed through a mountain of rubble. A helicopter, its blades spinning frantically, sinking slowly into the sound. A convertible impaled on a stoplight. A dozen bodies running madly in every direction, silhouetted against a swelling wall of flame.”
-- Narration (First Person - Mitchell's "Biographer") (Part One, Brugada )

Importance: This quote lists some of the images of devastation in the aftermath of the Seattle Earthquake, which takes place in the novel's first chapter. Both the event and the images foreshadow a similarly devastating event, and similar images, later in the narrative.

If you devoted your life to the contemplation of disaster, then wasn’t an incident-free existence an empty one? … if you planned for disaster and none ever occurred, you were a fantasist. But if a disaster you predicted did come true, then your life had meaning. You weren’t just an expert. You were a prophet.”
-- Narration   (Part One, The Futurist – Chapter 3)

Importance: This quote appears within the context of...