I am seven years old, and I still do not know why everybody seems to know what they are doing and why they are doing it.
-- Narrator (Chapter 1 paragraph N/A)

Importance: Wainaina expresses his lack of understanding in the way that everybody else seems to know what they are doing and why they are doing it. He does not have that same sense about his life.

Words, I think, must be concrete things. Surely they cannot be suggestions of things, vague pictures: scattered, shifting sensations?
-- Narrator (Chapter 1 paragraph N/A)

Importance: Even as a young child, Wainaina questions words and the substance of words. It is the beginning of his love of words and writing.

No one speaks. The wedding women are silent. My ears heat up. It is as if Kenya is over there, with the crowd, and behind us are the wedding women — who have sided with Uganda. All of Kenya is pulled together by Mrs. Karanja. And the...
-- Narrator (Chapter 2 paragraph N/A)