How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter)
Quote #1
[John:] Lorraine is panting to get at the typewriter now, and I'm going to let her before she has a heart attack. (1)
[Lorraine:] I should never have let John write the first chapter because he always has to twist things subliminally. I am not panting, and I am not about to have a thrombosis. (2)
These two juxtaposed passages indicate, right away, certain personality characteristics with which we will become more familiar: John exaggerates, often in a humorous way; Lorraine is much more reserved, and is often critical of John.
Quote #2
[Lorraine:] The one big difference between John and me, besides the fact that he's a boy and I'm a girl, is I have compassion. Not that he really doesn't have any compassion, but he'd be the last one on earth to show it. He pretends he doesn't care about anything in the world, and he's always ready with some outrageous remark, but if you ask me, any real hostility he has is directed against himself. (2)
Again, Lorraine shows what a good analyst of human nature she is. This girl will make a great psychologist!
Quote #3
[Lorraine:] His [John's] eyes reminded me of a description of a gigantic Egyptian eye that was found in one of the pyramids I read about in a book on black magic. Somehow an archaeologist's wife ended up with this huge stone eye in her bedroom, and in the middle of the night it exploded and a big cat started biting the archaeologist's wife's neck. When she put the lights on, the cat was gone. Only the pieces of the eye were scattered all over the floor. That's what John's eyes remind me of. I knew even from the first moment I saw him he had to be something special. (2)
But Lorraine also has a superstitious side. And why do John's eyes remind her of this bizarre story? Maybe what she means is that John's eyes are powerful?