If I can see you, I must be here.
-- Antonia (Book 1)

Importance: This quote is repeated as a refrain at various times in the novel and represents a feeling that is implicitly shared by Antonia or Sofia toward the other person. One of the themes the novel explores is the boundary between friendship and codependence, and this quote’s idea that one person’s reality is dependent upon another’s demonstrates that fine line.

Stay with your own kind; take the jobs we do not want. The American dream would have to be gleaned, bought, or stolen.
-- Joey (Book 1)

Importance: This quote is one of the most concise expressions in the novel of the theme of racism and immigration expressing the way that immigrants to the United States can often feel that they have limited options for where to live and what jobs they can get. For the Italian immigrant characters in the novel, this feeling...