So here I am, upside down in a woman.”
-- Narrator (chapter 1 paragraph 1)

Importance: The first line of the novel introduces the fact that the narrator is an unborn child to the reader.

In the middle of a long, quiet night I might give my mother a sharp kick. She'll wake, become insomniac, reach for the radio. Cruel sport, I know, but we are both better informed by the morning.”
-- Narrator (chapter 1 paragraph 6)

Importance: This instance shows the interesting, while insignificant influence that the narrator has on his mother.

Not everyone knows what it is to have your father’s rival’s penis inches from your nose.”
-- Narrator (chapter 3 paragraph 5)

Importance: This quote from early in the book demonstrates the narrator's disdain for his uncle.

Pessimism is too easy, even delicious, the badge and plume of intellectuals everywhere. It absolves the thinking classes of solutions. We excite ourselves with dark thoughts in plays, poems, novels, movies.”
-- Narrator (chapter 3 paragraph 13)

Importance: The narrator suggests why humans distract themselves...