As the father of your children, as a friend, as someone who shared a journey with you and as someone who loves you and cares about you. I don’t need to be married to you to be all those things. Those things are deeper than marriage. Those things are forever.
-- Paul (chapter 18)

Importance: This is Paul's assurance that despite everything that he and Laurel have been through, they will always be intricately entwined with one another. They no longer love each other as husband and wife, but their love for each other has evolved into something irreplaceable through their shared experiences.

May was like the Friday night of summer: all the good times lying ahead of you, bright and shiny and waiting to be lived.
-- Narrator (chapter 9)

Importance: As Ellie is lounging with Theo, they are both blissfully happy as well as blissfully unaware that very shortly their current joy will be torn apart. This...