Quote 1
"Come on, woman!"
The woman knelt among the books, touching the drenched leather and cardboard, reading the gilt titles with her fingers while her eyes accused Montag.
"You can't ever have my books," she said. (1.346-8)
This woman recognizes what Montag will not realize for some time – the value of books is not physical and doesn’t lie in the tangible pages. That’s why, although they burn this woman’s books, they never really take them from her.
Quote 2
"You weren't there, you didn't see," he said. "There must be something in books, things we can't imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You don't stay for nothing." (1.546)
Notice how it takes a person to get Montag’s attention. People like this woman, Clarisse, Faber, and eventually Granger get him to notice the substance behind literature.
Quote 3
"It's not just the woman that died," said Montag. "Last night I thought about all the kerosene I've used in the past ten years. And I thought about books. And for the first time I realized that a man was behind each one of the books. A man had to think them up. A man had to take a long time to put them down on paper. And I'd never even thought that thought before." He got out of bed.
"It took some man a lifetime maybe to put some of his thoughts down, looking around at the world and life, and then I came along in two minutes and boom! it's all over."(1.556-7)
All his life Montag has known only destruction, only one half of the cycle. Destruction has no meaning for him until he begins to recognize the work he is undoing, the construction half of the cosmic routine.