Those things are as real as anything else, though, and I'll have to fly through them. Straight through the sickening dips and air pockets, because you can't chart a course around anything you're afraid of.
-- Beryl (Prologue paragraph 4)

Importance: This quote shows Beryl's attitude when it comes to overcoming challenges. One has to just keep on moving forward, a perspective that she adopted early in her life after her mother abandoned her.

He scooped me under my arms, grazed my drying tears with a quick kiss, and set me on my own two feet.
-- Beryl (chapter 1 paragraph 17)

Importance: Beryl's father's actions set the tone for her life. He did not really know how to comfort her. Instead he set her on her own two feet, meaning that she was going to have to be self-reliant.

But sometimes everything has to end and the bottom drop out and every light fizzle and die before a proper beginning can come...
-- Beryl (chapter 2 paragraph 1)