The shelf life of words was getting shorter all the time—it wasn't only the foreign ones that were falling out of use.
-- Narrator

Importance: Yoshiro has this thought when considering the evolution of language at the Rent-a-Dog store. This line not only establishes Yoshiro's relationship with words, his attempt to understand their shapeshifting and translated meanings, but also foreshadows the importance of spoken and written word in Japan's closed society. The moment cues the narrative interest in time, its inevitability and ever-changing effects on the individual.

Bread reminds you of faraway lands—that they exist, I mean—that's what I like about it. I'd rather eat rice, but bread sets you dreaming.
-- Yoshiro

Importance: Yoshiro says this to the baker one morning while buying bread. Like many of the objects Yoshiro interacts with throughout the novel, bread grants him access to a world beyond his own. Perpetually absorbed in memories of his past...