How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
"There is no such thing as time travel." (15.124)
The evil guard from the awful future tells Connie this. It's supposed to show his ignorance and lack of imagination—but on the other hand, he's right! There is no time-travel; you can't go to Mattapoisett with the gardens and talking cats no matter how receptive you are or how long you hold your breath. The evil guard from the awful future is right. We hate it when that happens.
Quote #8
"I can't know that time—any more than you can ultimately know us. We can only know what we can truly imagine. Finally what we see comes from ourselves." (17.25)
Luciente is saying that you can't really know the future, because you can't truly imagine it. But she also seems to be saying that to know you have to imagine. Connie imagining the future, then, might be a way to know the future. You need to dream your way to the future you want.
Quote #9
For Skip, for Alice, for Tina, for Captain Cream and Orville, for Claud, for you who will be born from my best hopes, to you I dedicate my act of war. At least once I fought and won. (19.110)
Connie is saying that poisoning the doctors in the present will help Mattapoisett be born from her best hopes. But she also sees the act as coming out of, or dedicated to, those she loves who have been brutalized in the past. Present actions come from what's gone before and from what is to come. Whether that's a good thing or not is somewhat less clear.