How we cite our quotes: Chapter.Paragraph
Quote #1
I'm too self-conscious […] I feel myself trying to be charming, and then I realize I'm obviously trying to be charming, and then I try to be even more charming to make up for the fake charm. (2.6)
In case you haven't picked up on it, personality fakery is a gigantic problem for pretty much everyone in this book, with Amy being the worst offender. It's interesting that she identifies "self-consciousness" as one of the roots of her tendency to disguise herself—it implies that she's truly not happy with herself as she is. Given her history with her parents and their passive-aggressive rewriting of her personal life, it's not surprising that she feels like she has to create a new version of herself for every person she meets.
Quote #2
Go is truly the only person in the entire world I am totally myself with. I don't feel the need to explain my actions to her. I don't clarify, I don't doubt, I don't worry. I don't tell her everything, not anymore, but I tell her more than I tell anyone else, by far. (3.4)
It's great to have a friend or sibling you can trust—and it's even better when she's your twin that you have a weird telepathic connection with. Nick proves through his actions throughout the book that he truly doesn't have to perform for Go, and even when he does lie to her (e.g. the Andie Affair), she usually is one step ahead of him and already knows something's amiss. Go always knows the score, which is probably one reason why Nick knows better than to pull one over on her.
Quote #3
It had been an awful fairy tale reverse transformation. Over just a few years, the old Amy, the girl of the big laugh and the easy ways, literally shed herself, a pile of skin and soul on the floor, and out stepped this new, brittle, bitter Amy. My wife was no longer my wife, but a razor-wire knot daring me to unloop her. (7.84)
By her own admission, Amy discovered once they moved to North Carthage that she was tired of playing the role of someone she just wasn't. Here we get Nick's side of the transformation of his vivacious wife into a shell of a human being.