And yet it takes only the smallest pleasure or pain to teach us time's malleability. Some emotions speed it up, others slow it down; occasionally, it seems to go missing-until the eventual point when it really does go missing, never to return.
-- Tony Webster (chapter 1)

Importance: This quote is important as it sets up the general themes of this novel, having to do with the relationship between time and emotions, how time can heal certain things while at the same time making others harder to bear. It is the insight of an older Tony, one who has had his life experiences and come to a realization as to how they function.

Another detail I remember: the three of us, as a symbol of our bond, used to wear our watches with the face on the inside of the wrist. It was an affectation, of course, but perhaps something more. It made time feel like...
-- Tony Webster (chapter 1)