How we cite our quotes: The main text of the story is cited (Chapter.Paragraph). The date headers are not counted as paragraphs. The verses in the chapters with a single passage from the narrator's religious texts are cited (Chapter.Verse.Line#). In chapters with multiple passages, the verses are cited (Chapter.Verse#.Line#). The four section pages with the years and passages are cited (Year.Verse).
Quote #1
"Space could be our future," I say. I believe that. As far as I'm concerned, space exploration and colonization are among the few things left over from the last century that can help us more than they hurt us. It's hard to get anyone to see that, though, when there's so much suffering going on just outside our walls. (3.16)
Lauren says this to her father when there's space news on the radio. He doesn't think space exploration is a worthy investment, but she does. That's a debate that still takes place in real life, too. The Apollo program that landed United States astronauts on the moon is regarded by many—including sci-fi fans—as one of humanity's greatest achievements, but lots of people, including opponents of the Vietnam War, thought Apollo was an immoral waste of cash when so many people could use help here on Earth.
Quote #2
Mars is a rock—cold, empty, almost airless, dead. Yet it's heaven in a way. We can see it in the night sky, a whole other world, but too nearby, too close within the reach of the people who've made such a hell of life here on Earth. (3.21)
When people want to reboot their lives, they sometimes move to a new city, right? They do it to get a chance to start over. Well, humanity moving to another planet is pretty much the same thing, just on a much huger scale. By Lauren's day, we've pretty much trashed Earth, after all; it would be nice to get a chance to begin again.
Quote #3
There has to be more that we can do, a better destiny that we can shape. Another place. Another way. Something! (6.151)
Lauren's totally taking out her frustrations in her journal after thieves attack her Robledo neighborhood yet another time. She thinks everyone can put in more effort to improve their lives, but she wonders if, to adopt this change, people might need a new place or a new way of living. Basically, at this point in the story, Lauren's limited to ranting in her journal or trying to give advice to the not-very-helpful Joanne...because Lauren is just a teenager in a place where the adults have all the say.