We lived under the weird dictatorship of childhood: we looked but didn’t see, listened but understood nothing, spoke and were largely ignored.
-- Camilo (Page 11-30)

Importance: This quote from Camilo is significant because it ties together two of the novel's overarching themes: a confrontation with the politics of repression in 1970s Brazil and the strange contradictions common to childhood. The quote can be taken both literally (as Camilo's movements are restricted by his parents when he is young) and as a kind of metaphor for the lack of enlightenment among the people of Brazil in the 1970s toward the repressive aspects of their culture. Indeed, the phenomenon of people "looking the other way" when confronted with instances of violence, injustice, and bigotry is one of the recurring motifs in The Love of Singular Men, and the conflation of dictatorship with childhood in this quote is an important lynchpin in the novel's overall thesis...