How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
As I took those two steps back, Margo took two equally small and quiet steps forward. (Prologue.14)
When they're kids, Margo is the one with the adventurous, inquisitive nature, while Quentin wants to back off and run home, exploring only the inside of his own eyelids.
Quote #2
"I did an investigation," [Margo] said quite seriously. (Prologue.26)
Margo is a little detective even at nine years old. She's like Daphne and Velma rolled into one, but investigating suicides in Florida instead of people dressed up as ghosts at haunted theme parks.
Quote #3
"My heart is really pounding," I said.
"That's how you know you're having fun," Margo said. (1.4.78-79)
Margo Roth Spiegelman seems to like the adrenaline rush of exploring forbidden places more than the actual exploration itself.
Quote #4
"We're just going to go to SeaWorld, that's all. It's the only theme park I haven't broken into yet." (1.7.71)
Ever since Blackfish, no one wants to pay to get into SeaWorld anyway.
Quote #5
"In your last moments […] you'll say to yourself: 'Well, I wasted my whole goddamned life, but at least I broke into SeaWorld with Margo Roth Spiegelman my senior year of high school. At least I carpe'd that one diem.'" (1.8.8)
Margo Roth Spiegelman likes to think that she's the most important person ever. For her, it's not about the exploration, it's about being with Margo Roth Spiegelman.
Quote #6
I couldn't help but hope that Margo Roth Spiegelman would return to my window and drag my tired ass through one more night I'd never forget. (2.1.65)
Quentin doesn't just want to see Margo again, he wants her to take him places again. He wants to explore, but doesn't know how to risk it himself.
Quote #7
I seemed to be the first person to walk on these unnamed dirt streets in years. (2.10.39)
By following the trail that he thinks Margo has laid for him, Quentin explores places that no one would ever make a tourist destination, like abandoned subdivisions, a.k.a. pseudovisions, in Florida.
Quote #8
In becoming comfortable, I found it easier to explore. (2.12.18)
Quentin has a lot of anxiety, but the more he explores, the less anxious he feels, and the less anxious he feels, the more he explores. It's cyclical.
Quote #9
The book was called Roadside America: Your Travel Guide. […] Someone had folded down the corners of several seemingly random pages. (2.12.40)
We guess Margo doesn't get Wi-Fi at the abandoned strip mall, so she can't plan out her route online; she has to use a decades-old travel guide. (It turns out this is a red herring, so we don't get to ride along the World's Largest Ball of Twine.)
Quote #10
"WOOHOO ROAD TRIP!" (3.1.4)
The road trip has been the ultimate manifestation of North American exploration ever since Lewis and Clark. An all-caps exclamation of excitement is the only appropriate reaction to an impending road trip.