An ant’s nest of activity, all dedicated to rendering this extinct ship’s bones into something usable for a new world.
-- Narrator (Chapter 1 paragraph 5)

Importance: The narrator describes the situation that Nailer and his crew find themselves in. To scrape a living together, they are salvaging remnants of the old world for use in the new world. Everything that the crews do is dedicated to breaking apart ships for sale and future utilization.

Different sides of the same coin. You tossed your luck in the air and it rattled down on the gambling boards and you either lived or died.
-- Narrator (Chapter 5 paragraph 41)

Importance: Early on in the novel, while Nailer does not believe in the Fates, he does not believe in free will, either. Rather, he believes in luck, which relies as much on fate as it does on the free will of others. Nailer’s understanding of fate and free will will soon change.

If...
-- Pima (Chapter 5 paragraph 51)