Now that all the others have run out of air, it's my turn to do a little story-making.
-- Narrator/Penelope (I)

Importance: Penelope says this at the start of the novel, therefore seizing narrative authority over her own story. This moment not only introduces the novel's exclusive point of view, but establishes Penelope's narrative voice and tone. The line also speaks to the author's greater interest in the profound power of the storyteller, her ability to claim her identity and personhood by way of voicing her experiences for herself.

...it's hard to keep track of time here, because we don't have any of it as such...
-- Narrator/Penelope (V)

Importance: Penelope says this when attempting to ground events in time for her reader. By telling her audience early on that traditional notions of time do not guide her narrative world, she establishes the structural atmosphere of the novel. Indeed, because Penelope is circumstantially incapable of timekeeping, she is...