Writing: a spooky activity. Staring at the sentence I’ve just written makes me dizzy. Where am I at this moment? I’m in my story – gone. To come back, I drag my eyes away from the manuscript and let my gaze drift toward the window until finally I’m here again, in the present. But where is here, when is now?
-- grandmother bear (Narration) (Part 1, Section 1 )

Importance: In this quote, from early in her self-narrated story, grandmother bear's experience while encountering herself and her memories as she writes simultaneously develops and foreshadows an aspect of the narrative that continues throughout her story and those of her descendants in Parts 2 and 3 - the blurring of past and present, of dream and reality, of existence and imagination.

Falling asleep and getting up were not my own private concerns, they were the work of Nature. When my childhood began, Nature came to an end. Now I want to...
-- grandmother bear (Narration) (Part 1, Section 2)