Death became history, geography rewrote itself. And yet earth was reborn. It was not a miracle that life was destroyed and then re-emerged. It was the raging stubbornness of living organisms that simply would not give in.
-- Unnamed Narrator (Prologue paragraph 3)

Importance: The book opens with descriptions of catastrophic events that occurred long in the past, the asteroid that is believed to have caused the extinction of the dinosaurs, and the eruption of volcanoes in the Deccan Traps. The narrator notes that life found a way to carry on after these events, because of an innate stubbornness. This is foreshadowing of the events of the novel, wherein a cataclysmic event seems to usher in the end of life on Earth, until Joan (quite stubborn in her own pursuit of survival) facilitates its rebirth.

We are what happens when the seemingly unthinkable celebrity rises to power.
-- Christine (chapter 1 paragraph 1)

Importance: Before Jean de Men was the dictatorial leader of CIEL...