I took no pains to defend him. One doesn’t defend one’s god: one’s god is in himself a defense.
-- Narrator (chapter 1)

Importance: The narrator makes this statement in narration. It is in response to Mrs. Prest making a joke about Jeffrey Aspern. The narrator refers to Aspern as being a god and the object of the narrator's worship. This dynamic establishes the narrator's heavy obsession with Aspern, foreshadowing the monomaniacal lengths to which he attempts to secure the Aspern letters.

I felt an irresistible desire to hold in my own for a moment the hand that Jeffrey Aspern had pressed.
-- Narrator (chapter 3)

Importance: The narrator has this thought while saying that he and Juliana should shake hands to make their lodging agreement official. The narrator's thoughts emphasize Juliana's connection to Aspern. However, they also subtly emphasize the dissonance between Juliana at present and the Juliana whose loveliness was praised in Aspern's poetry. Juliana...