I possess a soul within this forbidding exterior. I can think, analyse, judge, remember and do everything you can do, perhaps with greater subtlety and sense. I lack only the faculty of speech.
-- Raja (chapter 1)

Importance: Raja is introducing himself to the reader, and begins by exploding the idea that his fierce appearance is matched by a ferocious nature. Instead, he lists all the things that we might think mark out humanity as different from animals, and claims he can do them just as well as man. All he lacks is speech, but this is a crucial lack: he cannot communicate his intelligence and sensitivity to most humans.

Who crowned the lion King of the Forest? Probably a fable writer, carried away by the pompous mane and beard, I suppose!
-- Raja (chapter 1)

Importance: Raja is reflecting on the appearances of animals and the judgments we make based on appearances, reasoning that lions are not as fearful...