How we cite our quotes: (Page number)
Quote #1
"Ladies and gentlemen. This train is now out of service. Do yourself a favor. Get out of here. You will find God if you look for him." We all get out of the train, somewhere between relieved and angry. Everyone's got someplace to be. Finding God is not on the schedule. (45)
The train conductor's evangelical speech doesn't cause any of his passengers to fall over in their seats begging for forgiveness, but the mini-sermon does prompt Daniel to be on high alert for “signs.” Conveniently, those signs lead him right to Natasha.
Quote #2
There's a pure kind of joy in the certainty of belief. The certainty that your life has purpose and meaning. That, though your earthly life may be hard, there's a better place in your future, and God has a plan to get you there. That all the things that have happened to him, even the bad, have happened for a reason. (48)
It's interesting that the train conductor and Natasha had such opposite reactions to heartbreak, especially because both characters shared the thought that if somebody could just stop loving you, they must never have loved you at all. Natasha reacted to her ex-boyfriend cheating on her by reminding herself that emotions are just chemical reactions in the brain, and somebody else's choices shouldn't have some deeper, life-altering meaning for her. Meanwhile, the conductor was incredibly depressed after his divorce, and he ultimately turned to religion to make himself feel better.
Quote #3
"Things happen for a reason, Tasha." Usually people say it when something goes wrong, but not too wrong. A nonfatal car accident. A sprained ankle instead of a broken one. Tellingly, my mom has not said it in reference to our deportation. What reason could there be for this awful thing happening? My dad, whose fault this whole thing is, says, "You can't always see God's plan." I want to tell him that maybe he shouldn't leave everything up to God and that hoping against hope is not a life strategy, but that would mean I would have to talk to him, and I don't want to talk to him. (34)
It's fun to look at both sides of this quote: Yes, it majorly stinks that Natasha is being deported due to her father's blabbermouth. On the flip side, if Natasha and her family weren't being deported, she would have been in school instead of outside the USCIS building, and she wouldn't have met Daniel. So could her parents be right that everything happens for a reason, or is it just a crazy coincidence that she and Daniel both happened to skip school and be in the same area of town on the same day?
Quote #4
"You really believe in God?"
"I do."
"One guy? In the sky? With superpowers?"
Her disbelief isn't mocking, just investigative. "Not exactly like that," I say.
"What, then?"
I squeeze her hand. "You know the way we feel right now? This connection between us that we don't understand and we don't want to let go of? That's God." (271)
Daniel’s beliefs may be unconventional, but his last line is swoon-worthy for Natasha, who almost wants Daniel to convince her that there’s more to life than her pessimistic view of it.
Quote #5
"I think all the good parts of us are connected on some level. The part that shares the last double chocolate chip cookie or donates to charity or gives a dollar to a street musician or becomes a candy striper or cries at Apple commercials or says I love you or I forgive you. I think that's God. God is the connection of the very best parts of us." (272)
To be honest, this quote from Daniel sounds like the script for a tear jerking Apple commercial...but it’s still a nice idea. Even Charlie has done one good, selfless thing in his life, and it’s uplifting to think that everyone is connected despite their differences.
Quote #6
I walk down Seventh Avenue toward my barber, keeping my out for some kind of Sign. On Thirty-Seventh I spot a church. I climb the stairs and try the door, but it's locked. God must be sleeping in. I look left and right. Still no Sign. I'm looking for something subtle, along the lines of a long-haired man turning water into wine and holding a placard proclaiming himself to be Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Savior.
Suit be damned, I sit down on the steps. Back across the street, people are making their way around a girl who is swaying slightly. She's black with an enormous, curly Afro and almost-as-enormous pink headphones. (49)
Ooooh. Could it be that Daniel was looking for an obvious sign from God about his future, but God had other things in mind and put Natasha in his path? Sending Jesus to chill in Times Square would be the obvious choice, but props to the Man Upstairs for switching things up and sending a beautiful black atheist with emotional baggage who’s getting deported today instead.
Quote #7
And so when you hear the word, you hear the original spiritual meaning. Everything is all right between you and your god, and therefore between you and the world. To be irie is to be in a high and content spiritual place. In the word, you hear the invention of religion itself. (24)
Lester Barnes’ flippant use of the word irie sends Natasha over the edge. It’s not just a cool tourist phrase to take back to your friends after Spring Break; it’s a meaningful word in the Jamaican culture. Of course, Natasha’s not a Rastafarian, but her annoyance levels have been on the rise ever since her dad started adopting his old Jamaican accent to prepare for their deportation.
Quote #8
She's wearing her backpack on one shoulder and I can see the Deus Ex Machina print again. Was it really just this morning that we met? This morning that I wanted to blow wherever the wind took me? What I wouldn't give for God to really be in the machine. (307)
Daniel’s wishing for an easy way out—a convenient twist that would save him and Natasha from their hopeless circumstances. Interestingly, meeting Natasha could be considered a deus ex machina of another color: What are the odds of him spending the entire day with a cute girl before she’s deported and realizing that he doesn’t want to just go along with his parents’ plan for his life? Check out our full analysis of deus ex machina here.
Quote #9
And because she knows airplanes can be lonely places and because she knows how desperate loneliness can be, she pays extra attention to her passengers. She takes care of them with an earnestness no other attendant does...Irene thinks of herself as a guardian angel with metallic wings. And so it is now that she's making her final checks before takeoff, looking for passengers who are going to need a little extra help. The young man in 7A is writing in a little black notebook. (342)
In one last nod to the theme of spirituality, Irene thinks of herself as a “guardian angel with metallic wings” for passengers who need some emotional support. Interestingly, she becomes a guardian angel for Daniel and Natasha, too. By working up the courage to tell Natasha her story, Irene reunites Natasha with her long lost love, conveniently sitting in the row behind her. Side note: We love the idea of angels having little pilot wing badges.
Quote #10
She goes into a store called Second Coming Records. I s*** you not. I know now: it's definitely a Sign, and I'm serious about blowing with the wind today. I want to know where it leads. (50)
If the train conductor hadn’t given his mini-sermon about looking for God, Daniel might not have been as in tune with the connection between Natasha’s deus ex machina jacket and Second Coming Records, both of which have overt spiritual meanings.