"It has been a life of sacrifice. I have no riches to offer you. All I have are my friendships. That is my treasure."
Willie Chandran's dad says this to Willie after he is done telling him his life's story and how he got to the place he is in today. This quote is important because it encompasses the entirety of Willie's father's life story. It allows the reader to understand that he gave up his family heritage and his wealth for a greater cause. He sacrificed this in order to forge an identity for himself and this idea is presented in this quote.
"He went by ship. And everything about the journey so frightened him - the size of his own country, the crowds in the port, the number of ships in the harbour, the confidence of the people on the ship - that he found himself unwilling to speak, at first out of pure worry, and then, when he discovered that silence brought him strength, out of policy."
This is the part in the book where Willie Chandran is 20 and he is leaving his home for the first time to go to London on his scholarship. He has never left his home before, much less India, and he is overwhelmed by everything he sees. This quote is thus so important because it shows the seeds of self-doubt that have been planted in Willie's mind, a characteristic that defines him through much of the novel and creates his lack of confidence. This pushes him towards his sexual escapades throughout the novel. Furthermore, this quote shows his lack of exposure to the world, which we also see when he finds out that he doesn't know of world politics, like the Suez Canal.
"No one he met, in the college or outside it, knew the rules of Willie's own place, and Willie began to understand that he was free to present himself as we wished. He could, as it were, write his own revolution. The possibilities were dizzying. He could, within reason, remake himself and his past and his ancestry."
This is the point in the book where Willie is becoming more familiar with his new home at the university. He has experienced many freedoms up till this point that he had not experienced before, but now, one more freedom is presented to him. Willie is free from the burden of his family background. What had been so important and defining to his identity was now gone, and he could create a new identity for himself. This is a turning point in the novel and represents a key theme in the book about identity.
"She had a wonderfully easy manner. And what was most intoxicating for Willie was that for the first time in his life he felt himself in the presence of someone who accepted him completely. At home his life had been ruled by his mixed inheritance. It spoilt everything."
The scene takes place after the narrator has written his book and a young African girl named Ana asks to meet him because she enjoyed his book so much. This is where he falls in love with Ana and we see why. Willie doesn't have to hide himself or change his identity in front of Ana, and his self-doubt is eradicated when he is with her. This is an extremely important event because it leads to Willie and Ana getting married and moving to the Portuguese colony in Africa, where the majority of the book takes place.
"But now the best part of my life has gone, and I've done nothing."
This quote takes place at the end of the book. Willie is in the hospital after slipping on the front steps of his estate, and after 18 years of marriage to Ana he realizes he wants a divorce. His life didn't pan out the way he thought it would and Willie wasn't able to forge an identity for himself and find out who he truly was. We can see the lead-up to this moment in Willie's insincerity to their marriage, and this quote is the final part that shatters their life together. We realize Willie wants to move on in his life and make something out of it, and his search for his identity, his search that took place throughout the book, was left unfulfilled.
