That damn necklace fell apart on me, do you know that? But I can understand fallin apart. Everything does that. It woulda been nice to know it was gonna happen. It woulda been nice to know that it never come from the king of Haiti. I didn’t mind the fallin apart. Just the lyin.
-- Melinda ("In the Blink of God's Eye")

Importance: This quote is from Melinda, a minor character in the story "In the Blink of God's Eye" who is reflecting on her ill-begotten romance with an old man named Willie. Willie gave Melinda a necklace under false pretenses and lied about its value before the necklace deteriorated. The significance of the quote lies in the fact that it serves as a kind of thesis for the story as a whole, which is concerned with the inevitable breakdown of trust within romantic relationships, particularly over the course of long marriages.

Watch out when white folks wanna...
-- Protagonist's Father ("Spanish in the Morning")