We consider him not only as the ornament and glory, but also as the victim of his profession.
-- Father (Book One)

Importance: Father includes this line from one of his reviews in a letter that he sends the family, and it does quick work in establishing the doomed sense that follows the family throughout the novel. Though Father achieves great success as an actor, he is also tormented by it; the quote would seem to indicate that the family, as a theater family, is collectively victim to this relationship. This plays into the novel's suggestion that the commonplace theatricality in the household was partly responsible for the family's exaggerated sense of legacy.

Children can snatch happiness from even the darkest times. That’s God’s gift, that’s how God loves children. You grow up, you can’t do that no more. You don’t have that gift. God’s taken it back.
-- Ann Hall (Book One)

Importance: Ann...