Where now? Who now? When now? Unquestioning. I, say I. Unbelieving. Questions, hypotheses, call them that.
-- The Narrator

Importance: The opening lines of the novel establish the paradoxical logic of the novel that is to follow: things are stated and quickly retracted, or the opposite is demonstrated to be true. In this case, the narrator questions without questioning, says "I" without believing it. These questions that the narrator poses are never answered, like the fundamental questions about the meaning and purpose of life.

Here all is clear. No, all is not clear. But the discourse must go on. So one invents obscurities, rhetoric."
-- The Narrator

Importance: One of the only discernible intentions of the narrator is to seek truth even though the limits of language disallow it. This impulse is self-defeating: the more the narrator attempts to fall onto truth, about himself or reality, the more his language falls into "obscurities." The discourse must continue because...