While I could not, of course, control the events that were to come, I could see all the innocent people we would eventually meet. All of them had a past and stories to tell. I knew their stories as you will also know them."
-- Kazumasa's Ball (chapter 1)

Importance: In this quote, Kazumasa's ball explains its limitations as a narrator. The ball is able to know people's stories, but not to influence the events of their lives. The ball also suggests that this knowledge can then be transferred to the reader.

Someone had told him about some doctors in Sao Paulo who poke your body with needles, but he thought that was unnecessary. He frowned in disgust."
-- Mané Pena (chapter 5)

Importance: Here, the author points out the reader's normative assumptions. While the reader may think that acupuncture is normal, Mané Pena thinks that acupuncture is disgusting compared to his feather habit.

It grows a different kind of thing. Buildings...
-- Mané Pena (chapter 12)