How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
At such moments I remember to thank my twin brother, Shiva—Dr. Shiva Praise Stone—to seek him out, to find his reflection in the glass panel that separates the two operating theaters, and to nod my thanks because he allows me to be what I am today. (P.28)
Though we can't know it when we first read the prologue, we know now that Marion feels that he and his once-conjoined identical twin Shiva have been reunited in the flesh. Shiva "allows" Marion to be what he is because he donated part of his liver to him, saving his life. The brothers' identities fuse by means of this transplant.
Quote #2
Born in Africa, living in exile in America, then returning at last to Africa, I am proof that geography is destiny. Destiny has brought me back to the precise coordinates of my birth, to the very same operating theater where I was born. (P.30)
Matron mourned the fact that many people who die in Ethiopia (like Sister Mary Joseph Praise or the Italian soldiers) are not actually from Ethiopia. Marion is one of the few characters we get to know who was actually born there and who gets to live out his adulthood there. He is Ethiopian, though his parents are not.
Quote #3
Twin brothers, we slept in the same bed till our teens, our heads touching, our legs and torsos angled away. We outgrew that intimacy, but I still long for it, for the proximity of his skull. (P.32)
The boys build up their identity as a collective. They are "the twins," and this position that they sleep in at night reinforces the togetherness that they experienced when they were joined at the head in the womb. Even after the stump that connects them is cut, they continue to feel as though they are a unit.