She didn’t mind touching when she initiated it or had time to mentally prepare for it.
-- Narrator (chapter 1)

Importance: The narrator describes Stella’s aversion to touch. Stella possesses tactile sensitivities due to having Asperger’s syndrome. She feels uncomfortable when people touch her which is part of why she freezes up during sex. She believes Michael is something special as when he touches her she does not have her usual aversion to it.

Purchases, clicks, log-in times, payment types—simple things, really. But they told her more about people than people themselves ever did.
-- Narrator (chapter 1)

Importance: The narrator conveys Stella’s difficulties socializing with people. She is able to understand data more than people, having difficulty interpreting the subtleties involved in human interaction.

No matter how hard he fought against it, at his core, he was just like his dad. The badness had been passed down in his blood.
-- Narrator (Michael) (chapter 6)

Importance: Michael believes that he...