Engaging as Alec could be, he’d never have received the elegiac Sports Illustrated treatment had he not strapped himself into a small plane at dawn, lifted off in a light westerly, and banked out over Lake Superior never to return.
-- Virgil as Narrator (Section 1, Chapter 2)

Importance: The quote illustrates how death can make people remarkable instead of their life. Alec’s notability in death is in contrast with Virgil’s notability for surviving.

Everyone was nice about it, but I was a living mistake. The notion that I’d somehow put one over on mortality was exhausting.
-- Virgil as narrator (Section 1, Chapter 6)

Importance: The quote shows Virgil’s unease with his survival. Virgil does not see his life as anything extraordinary or perhaps worth saving. In cheating death, Virgil is confronted with what he should do with his life.

Not until her death did she send this old fact into the light. Think of being told You have a child, and...
-- Virgil as narrator (Section 1, Chapter 10)