Have you ever had to live with the best part of yourself adrift, stationed at some unknowable distance?
-- Stasha (chapter 1 paragraph 2)

Importance: Stasha is describing her and Pearl's birth. She is saying that Pearl left the womb first, and she followed because she could not bear to be without her other half. The quote is an effective introduction to their close relationship, and a nod to the plot of Part Two of the novel, when the twins have been separated and neither knows quite how to go on without the other.

But something about her false expression made me acknowledge what Mama had become: a pretty but sleepless semi-widow, faded in her personhood. Once the primmest of women, she was undone; dust streaked her cheek, her lace collar lay limp.
-- Stasha (chapter 1 paragraph 6)

Importance: This is a very evocative and precise description of the twins' mother. On the platform at Auschwitz, Stasha and Pearl feel they must obey...