— I was taught how to by the sunlight pilgrims, they’re from the islands furthest north. You can drink light right down into your chromosomes, then in the darkest minutes of winter, when there is a total absence of it, you will glow and glow and glow. I do, she says.—You glow?—Like a fucking angel, she says.
-- Gunn, Stella (chapter 5)

Importance: This is a key quote because it encapsulates the main message of the novel: if you store away light when you have it, you will glow in the darkness. It is implied that it is Gunn that tells Stella this. Despite never having met Gunn, Stella senses this and it is later reiterated by Dylan. The mysticism of the novel begins here and is revisited throughout the novel. The fact that the old woman swears like Gunn and then later disappears into thin air reinforces this theory. Fagan is telling the...