Maybe I'd always had the wrong idea as to who I really was.
-- Sal (Part One)

Importance: This quote appears at the beginning of Part One. It sets the stage for the motif of identity that runs throughout the narrative. It shows Sal facing an identity crises when he thinks that maybe he is not who he thought he was all along.

My dad was not that word.
-- Sal (Life Begins)

Importance: Sal thinks this as he goes home after having punched Enrique for calling his father a faggot. It shows the power of words on one's identity. In this case, Sal is saying that his father is not the person the word "faggot" signifies.

And then I thought that I must be more like my biological father - the man who'd slept with my mother one night. And I hated that thought.
-- Sal (Sometimes in the Night)

Importance: Sal thinks this as he thinks of the ways that he is not like Vicente...