“I showed up on time for my eleven A.M. interview and didn’t panic until I encountered the line of leggy, Twiggy types waiting to be permitted to board the elevators. Their lips never stopped moving, and their gossip was punctuated only by the sound of their stilettos clacking on the floor. Clackers, I thought. That’s perfect.”

This quote describes Andy’s first encounter with the infamous Clackers, who recur throughout the novel. Their footwear foreshadows her own battle with stylish but painful shoes. The monotonous sound of their heels parallels the monotonous nature of their gossip.

“The chance to work for her, to watch her edit and meet with famous writers and models, to help her achieve all she does each and every day, well, I shouldn’t need to tell you that it’s a job a million girls would die for.” 

Andy hears this mantra for the first time from a personnel rep before her interview. The irony of the statement is lost on her until much later in the story. The cult-like nature of Runway means that many girls would sacrifice their lives to work for Miranda. Little does Andy know that this sacrifice is exactly what her new boss will require of her. By the time she’s ready to quit, Andy is half-dead from exhaustion.

“But at that moment, I felt beautiful. Natural and cold and clean and crisp, I threw open the front door and called out for my mother. It was the last time in my life I remember feeling so light.” 

Andy has just accepted the Runway job but hasn’t yet started working for Miranda. This statement is uttered in hindsight by a sadder, wiser narrator. Ironically, just as everyone at Runway obsesses about being physically light, as in underweight, they’re all emotionally oppressed by the heavy responsibility of making Miranda happy every moment—and by the guilt of failing to do so.