How we cite our quotes:
Quote #1
My name is Christopher John Francis Boone. I know all the countries of the world and their capital cities and every prime number up to 7,507. (3.1)
This is how Christopher introduces himself. The way he says this, it's almost as if the things he knows are as important as his name, like they're part of his identity. Imagine if he wrote himself some business cards – they would have his name, his phone number, and all his most impressive factoids.
Quote #2
Prime numbers are what is left when you have taken all the patterns away. I think prime numbers are like life. They are very logical but you could never work out the rules, even if you spent all your time thinking about them. (19.7)
Well, Christopher might think that prime numbers are like life, but we think they're like Christopher: unique, indivisible, a little unpredictable, and very mysterious.
Quote #3
Mother used to say that it meant Christopher was a nice name because it was a story about being kind and helpful, but I do not want my name to mean a story about being kind and helpful. I want my name to mean me. (29.10)
This is an interesting passage. We might expect it to express Christopher's desire for uniqueness and individuality, but he doesn't actually seem too concerned with that at all. So, what else is going on here? One thing we can point out is how completely he disregards the story as being "kind and helpful," as if he can't connect with that sort of thing at all. But his real problem seems to be the notion that the name Christopher can stand for multiple things: that story, being kind and helpful, and he himself. He wants words to mean one thing and only thing only.
Quote #4
And I don't know what some hardness, perhaps of eye means, and I'm not interested in faces. (107.11)
For most of us, a person's face makes up a big part of his or her identity. (Note: not that person's personality, but his or her identity – for example, when we imagine a person in our minds, we might picture the face first.) If Christopher is uninterested in faces, then what are the important factors in identifying a person?
Quote #5
And it was strange because he was calling, "Christopher...? Christopher...?" and I could see my name written out as he was saying it. [...] I could see it written really large, like it was on a big advert on the side of a bus. And it was in my mother's handwriting [...] (157.26)
This is a powerful image, evoking just how earth-shattering the discovery of his mother's letters must be. It has even dislodged his sense of self, so that he sees his own identity as being wrapped up in his mother's idea of him in her letters.
Quote #6
But the mind is just a complicated machine. (163.10)
Is this is all what the mind is – a complicated machine? Or does he really mean the brain? Either way, do you agree?
Quote #7
Then he said, "What's your name?"
And I said, "Christopher Boone."
And he said, "Where do you live?"
And I said, "36 Randolph Street" and I started feeling better because I like policemen and it was an easy question [...] (191.20)
Why does Christopher start feeling better? Is it the policeman? Is it because he likes answering questions and taking tests in general? Or is it that these questions have a grounding effect on an otherwise turbulent moment, reminding him who he is and where he's from?
Quote #8
And eventually there is no one left in the world except people who don't look at other people's faces and who don't know what these pictures mean [...] (229.5)
This is probably our first indication that Christopher feels some sense of kinship with other people who have social disorders, and some resentment about being different. In the world he describes, no one would have identities at all, outside of what they think of themselves.