“The talent you cannot not use, the talent that possesses you—that is a hazard, I must confess.” 

From the opening pages of the book, this foreshadows the narrator’s double-mindedness power that will be his ultimate demise, as it is when his mind literally splits in two.

“After the tenth putsch, I accepted the absurd state of our state with a mix of despair and anger, along with a dash of humor, a cocktail under whose influence I renewed my revolutionary vows.” 

Here we are given the exact formula for revolution, which is espoused in different permutations throughout the entire book: despair, anger, with a dash of humor and absurdity. These are the primary ingredients for revolution.

“I was doing my best imitation of a Third World child on one of those milk cartons passed around elementary schools for American children to deposit their pennies and dimes in order to help poor Alejandro, Abdullah, or Ah Sing have a hot lunch and an immunization.”