As she approaches the sad, mostly logged-over wood, she detects the first chemical smells — ammonia, benzene, petroleum, so many others, ten thousand nicks on a single patch of flesh — and relinquishes the hope she had not realized she harbored.
-- Narrator (Part 1, Prologue)

Importance: This quote refers to a minor theme in the novel, that of the damage that humans have done to the earth. As soon as Evie appears in Dooling, she is confronted with meth manufacture and the over-clearing of the woods, both of which not only damage the earth but also its inhabitants.

Near the top of Ree’s forehead there was a patch of scar tissue that resembled a grill mark, three deep parallel lines. Although Jeanette didn’t know what had caused the scar, she could guess who had made it: a man. Maybe her father, maybe her brother, maybe a boyfriend, maybe a guy she’d never seen before...
-- Narrator (Part 1, Chapter 1)