Beautiful and serene from his balcony a few minutes earlier, Kerans realized that the lagoon was nothing more than a garbage-filled swamp.
-- Narrator (chapter 1)

Importance: This quote, which occurs early in the novel, establishes the tensions that exist between the natural world and human development. It also foreshadows Kerans' ultimate decision-making at the novel's conclusion; already, he seems to believe the natural world (the lagoon) is marred by human impact (the garbage).

Is there any point? We all know the news for the next three million years.
-- Kerans (chapter 1)

Importance: This quotation effectively communicates the characters' lack of use for conventional structures of time. Kerans implicitly mocks the instinct to mechanize and predict in a world that has so thoroughly rejected human ability to do so. Furthermore, it speaks to the way in which time moves both forward and backward across the novel's run time.

Perhaps it was this absence of personal memories that made Kerans...
-- Narrator (chapter 2)