I didn't earn it.
-- Protagonist (dialogue) (chapter 1)

Importance: The protagonist makes this statement whenever anyone congratulated him in the large monetary settlement he has received. This response not only emphasizes the arbitrary nature of the accident itself, but it may also emphasize the concept of wealth disparity as being arbitrary and inherently unjust. These ideas later connect to the ways in which his wealth enables his increasingly destructive behaviors.

No Doing without Understanding: the accident bequeathed me that forever, an eternal detour.
-- Protagonist (narration) (chapter 2)

Importance: After the accident, the protagonist must undergo physical therapy in order to relearn how to move his body. Although he successfully does so, he constantly feels one degree alienated from his movements, which no longer feel completely natural. Similarly, he also feels alienated from reality in general, and this alienation becomes a central character trait for him throughout the book.

Maybe it was various things all rolled together: memories, imaginings, films, I...
-- Protagonist (dialogue) (chapter 5)