There's always someone to worry about. Anyone that knows we're out here alone, for starters.
-- Chloe (chapter 1 paragraph 4)

Importance: This quote illustrates Chloe's wary and feral mindset as a 13-year-old, and her experience of being under constant siege by various threats ranging from wild dogs to bullies to sexual predators to her abusive father as she struggled to fend for herself and her younger sister all on her own.

It will be too late, by then, for some things, but not too late for everything.
-- Narrator (chapter 2 paragraph 2)

Importance: In context, this quote refers to Mark and Letty's union in marriage after her divorce and attempted hanging, and the semi-happily-ever-after that they achieve. But it is also a pervasive theme throughout the novel that even the worst situations usually have some redeeming aspect: that good things can arise from irrevocable tragedy; that although certain individuals may be doomed, healing and renewal are possible on a family or community...