How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
The fact that you now have no voice will define you from here on in. Like your fingerprints, the color of your eyes, your name. (3.107)
In one of the panels in which his parents drive him home from the hospital after surgery, David realizes that the absence of a voice can define you as much as the sound of one.
Quote #8
[…] When you have no voice, you don't exist. (3.206)
David still exists, of course, but without the ability to share his thoughts, feelings, and ideas with other people, he feels like he might as well be invisible. He learns that if people can't hear you, they'll move on without you.
Quote #9
After life in a house where silence reigned and free speech was forbidden, that office, three times a week, became a haven for me. There, things began to make sense… (4.73)
David's therapist—that's Dr. White Rabbit to you—wins his trust by saying the things his parents can't say. He praises David's drawings; he asks if David's getting enough to eat. He does for the teenager what David's parents should have done when he was a small child.