Things have a strange way of working themselves out, he concluded. Force and reaction, pressure and endurance. In the sphere of marital science, one needs chemistry to kick open the door, but after that, it’s physics that governs the running of it.
-- Narrator (I)

Importance: This quote comes at the beginning of the novel, as George is talking about how he and Phoenix have arrived at certain compromises that allow them to keep their ways of life intact while integrating that of the other person. As we come to learn over the course of the novel, their upbringings were vastly different, which leads them to have different habits as adults. However, they clearly love each other, and they learn all the new things about Phoenix's past together as the novel goes on.

Grief was messy, with its many folds, layers, and loose ends that were vaguely familiar to him from the days...
-- Narrator (I)