If you have ever fucked up in your life, or if the great river of sadness that runs through us all has touched you, then this book is for you.
-- Lidia (Acknowledgments paragraph Acknowledgments)

Importance: Lidia explains that the book she writes is for everyone who feels as though they have failed, but redemption is possible.

All the events in my life swim in and out between each other. Without chronology. Like in dreams. So if I am thinking of a memory...there is no linear sense. Language is a metaphor for experience. It’s as arbitrary as the mass of chaotic images we call memory--but we can put it into lines to narrativize over fear.
-- Lidia (The Chronology of Water paragraph Section I)

Importance: Lidia explains why the events of her memoir are told out of sequence.

That's not the only thing you're good at.
-- Ken Kesey (The Less Than Merry Pranksters paragraph Section I)

Importance: Lidia thinks Kesey is going to hit on her, but he puts his hand around her shoulders not...