How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter)
Quote #4
[John:] Then I got very sad because I knew I wasn't really wondering about the guy underneath me, whoever he was. I was just interested in what was going to happen to me. I think that's probably the real reason I go to the graveyard. I'm not afraid of seeing ghosts. I think I'm really looking for ghosts. I want to see them. I'm looking for anything to prove that when I drop dead there's a chance I'll be doing something a little more exciting than decaying. (7)
This seems to be a rare moment of reflection and introspection for John. He thinks seriously about death and the possibility of an afterlife.
Quote #5
[John's father:] "The business can be half yours, and you know it. I can't take the strain much longer."
[John:] Every time he says that, I get a little sick to my stomach because I know it's true. He's almost sixty years old, and I know he's not going to be around much longer. All the guys at the Exchange drop dead of heart attacks. (7)
John usually speaks of his father with contempt, but this is a rare exception. He reveals that he cares about his father, and fears his father's death.
Quote #6
Lorraine, after John finds Conchetta's funeral bill: A terrible chill ran through me when he said that, because I had been afraid Conchetta was not away on a vacation. I didn't exactly suspect Mr. Pignati of having murdered her and sealed her body behind a wall in the cellar, but I was suspicious. There was something about the glaze in his eyes when he laughed that disturbed me because I could tell he didn't really believe his own laughter. It was a nervous type of laughing, the same kind as that of a landlady we once had after her husband died in a dentist's chair while he was under gas. (8)
Lorraine picks up on the fact that there's something strange about Mr. Pignati's laughter, but her suspicions are completely incorrect; he's laughing to cover up his grief, not because he's a psychopath.