How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
I dismiss the Ace of Clubs to the same top drawer as the Ace of Diamonds. For a moment, I imagine a full hand of aces in that drawer, fanned out as a player would hold them in a game. I never thought I wouldn't want four aces. In a card game, you pray for a hand like that. My life is not a card game. (2.4.31)
A four of a kind of aces? That's golden, but for once Ed isn't interested in what would win him a hand of Poker against his friends. Yet in some ways, his life is like a card game. Ed lets someone else literally deal the cards that determine where he goes, what he does, and who he helps.
Quote #5
"Could you tell him greed hasn't swallowed me up yet?" The sentence lands between us like a ball with no air in it. (2.721)
Here Father O'Reilly's bro sends him a message. It's a very different message than the ones Ed is delivering all over town, but it's worth noting that it's the only one that comes from someone other than the mystery man. With this one sentence, Ed changes the course of his path from fate to free will. He's the one telling the priest this, not the man who organized all of this.
Quote #6
I want to tell them, but I realize that all I do is deliver the message. I don't decipher it or make sense of it for them. They need to do that themselves. (2.Q.44)
As Ed reflects on the message for Gavin and Daniel Rose, he thinks about his role in the set-up. He wants to do more, but he goes against this desire because he doesn't think that's what he's supposed to do. Ed goes against his own feelings to stick to the plan.