Everyone wants to own the end of the world.
-- Ross (Part I, Chapter 1 paragraph 1)

Importance: This is a set-up to the entire novel. The Convergence is a way to own the end of the world.

I liked reading books that nearly killed me, books that helped tell me who I was, the son who spites his father by reading such books.
-- Jeffrey (Part I, Chapter 4 paragraph 8)

Importance: This quote is an indicator of the deep-seated contempt Jeffrey has for his father. Here, it is clear that it started at an early age.

Catastrophe is built into the early brain.
-- Szabo (Part I, Chapter 6 paragraph 23)

Importance: Szabo explains that catastrophe is not a new phenomenon and that humans have been thinking about it for centuries.

When the time comes, we'll return. Who will we be? What will we find? The world itself, decades away, think of it, sooner, or later. Not so easy to imagine what will be there, better or worse or so completely altered we will be...
-- Stenmark Twin (Part I, Chapter 6 paragraph 37)