He moved like an old man, grumbling like the world was out to get him, had in fact perhaps already gotten him, struck him down without mercy or care or intent as if it hadn’t even seen him standing there, he had just been in the way.
-- Victor (chapter 1)

Importance: This quote shows how a young and promising life can be reduced to a mere struggle to survive simply because of circumstances, and kept there due to the world's indifference.

The sound of the crowd was a distant buzzing – fifty thousand desperate flies knocking against fifty thousand closed windows.
-- Victor (chapter 1)

Importance: Victor can already hear the growing strength of the crowd from his relative distance. The idea of so many flies (people) up against large (and personal) obstacles is an evocative image.

The American Dream was dead. All those promises now just cold ashes between his people’s chanting teeth, sitting heavy on their...
-- John Henry (chapter 2)