The baby is dead.
-- Narrator (Chapter 1)

Importance: This quote is important because it is the first sentence in the book. It sets the tone for the rest of the novel.

They're eating me alive, she would think.
-- Myriam (Chapter 2)

Importance: This quote is important because it shows how Myriam felt as a stay-at-home-mother. Being alone with her children all day makes her feel stifled.

Her face is like a peaceful sea, its depths suspected by no one.
-- Narrator (Chapter 3)

Importance: This quote is important because it shows that Louise's surface appearance disguises the mental instability beneath the surface. It suggests that one must look deeper than the surface if one wishes to truly know another.

Louise waits. She watches them as if she's studying the death throes of a fish she's just caught, its gills bleeding, its body shaken by spasms. The fish wriggling on the bottom of the boat, sucking the air through its exhausted mouth, the fish...
-- Narrator (Chapter 9)