I’m not exactly an artist, and I don’t exactly not have children.
-- Nora Eldridge (Part 1, Chapter 2 paragraph 14)

Importance: Nora means that her teaching is a creative activity and that she has children in her students, without having children of her own.

I wanted her [to be ]ignoble, irresponsible, unreasonable, petty, grasping, greedy for the lot of it, jostling and spitting and clawing for every grain of life.
-- Nora Eldridge (Part 1, Chapter 7 paragraph 49)

Importance: As Nora watches her mother decline, she sympathizes with what she thinks of as her mother’s unhappiness and wishes that her mother were hungrier for her life.

I didn’t particularly want anyone to tell me it was good. I just wanted to be got, And I didn’t trust that I would be.
-- Nora Eldridge (Part, Chapter 9 paragraph 57)

Importance: Nora has rarely shown her art to people because she is afraid of not being understood. This reticence will become important in later chapters.

I want—I wanted—for Reza to have...
-- Sirena (Part 1, Chapter 13 paragraph 86)