It isn’t easy being good, is it?
-- Cienfuegos (chapter 5 paragraph 3)

Importance: This rhetorical question, made early in the story, foreshadows what is going to be Matt's struggle to find balance between power and goodness, liberty and protection, doing good and saving lives.

You should have seen him Celia! It was like having the old man back again!” “I don’t like the idea of having the old man back again.
-- Cienfuegos and Celia (chapter 9 paragraph 2)

Importance: This quote demonstrates the struggle Matt continually has: between being enough like El Patron to successfully run the country, but not so much like El Patron that he is cruel and evil.

You’re too young for all the problems you have inherited. But God arranges these things for a purpose. What was I but one of a hundred thousand women El Patron enslaved throughout his long life? Yet Fate decreed that I arrive at the moment you needed me. Maria befriended you...
-- Celia (chapter 11 paragraph 4)