Topic: Favourite Opening Lines (Read 19875 times)

arkhym · « **on:** 23 Mar 2009, 15:07 »

When I was at school studying english Literature my teacher once said that one of the most important parts of any book, play or poem is the opening line. With this line you could lose or gain your readers. Now I'm not sure I agree with him completely but I do remember my favourite opening line from a book. It was from The Gunslinger by Stephen King:

"The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed"

negative creep · « **Reply #1 on:** 23 Mar 2009, 16:41 »

"Call me Ishmael."

Avec · « **Reply #2 on:** 23 Mar 2009, 16:48 »

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

Scandanavian War Machine · « **Reply #3 on:** 23 Mar 2009, 16:56 »

"we were somewhere just outside Barstow, in the desert, when the drugs began to take hold"

KickThatBathProf · « **Reply #4 on:** 23 Mar 2009, 17:01 »

"I sent one boy to the gaschamber at Huntsville"

De_El · « **Reply #5 on:** 23 Mar 2009, 18:03 »

"Dog carcass in alley this morning, tire tread on burst stomach."

"My first experience with junk was during the War, around 1944 or 1945."

"Vaughan died yesterday in his last car crash."

"They gave me back my full Christian name and my old clothes and three miserable old Viceroy Golds."

Ford Prefect · « **Reply #6 on:** 23 Mar 2009, 18:04 »

"One time my cousin Walter got this cat stuck up his ass"

Inlander · « **Reply #7 on:** 23 Mar 2009, 18:55 »

"The first thing you find out when yer dog learns to talk is that dogs don't got nothing much to say."

Nodaisho · « **Reply #8 on:** 23 Mar 2009, 19:00 »

It was a pleasure to burn.

Yakob · « **Reply #9 on:** 23 Mar 2009, 19:16 »

Quote from: Nodaisho on 23 Mar 2009, 19:00

It was a pleasure to burn.

Dazed · « **Reply #10 on:** 23 Mar 2009, 20:24 »

So that ignorant, thick-lipped, evil whorehopping editor phones me up and says;

Melodic · « **Reply #11 on:** 23 Mar 2009, 23:55 »

It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents, except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.

look out! Ninjas! · « **Reply #12 on:** 24 Mar 2009, 02:56 »

Pretty much everything on this page here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulwer-Lytton_Fiction_Contest

Of particular note is this one:
"The bone-chilling scream split the warm summer night in two, the first half being before the scream when it was fairly balmy and calm and pleasant for those who hadn't heard the scream at all, but not calm or balmy or even very nice for those who did hear the scream, discounting the little period of time during the actual scream itself when your ears might have been hearing it but your brain wasn't reacting yet to let you know."

michaelicious · « **Reply #13 on:** 24 Mar 2009, 09:04 »

Quote from: negative creep on 23 Mar 2009, 16:41

"Call me Ishmael."

"Call me Jonah."

Also:

"As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect."

I like how Kafka cuts right to the chase a lot of the time.

negative creep · « **Reply #14 on:** 24 Mar 2009, 09:18 »

Where's that from?

imapiratearg · « **Reply #15 on:** 24 Mar 2009, 09:22 »

"All this happened, more or less."

celticgeek · « **Reply #16 on:** 24 Mar 2009, 09:30 »

"In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move."

rynne · « **Reply #17 on:** 24 Mar 2009, 10:22 »

Hugh Laurie, The Gun Seller: "Imagine that you have to break someone's arm."

HP Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu: "The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. "

celticgeek · « **Reply #18 on:** 24 Mar 2009, 11:20 »

“A beginning is the time for taking the most delicate care that the balances are correct.”

mberan42 · « **Reply #19 on:** 24 Mar 2009, 12:55 »

Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the western spiral arm of the galaxy lies a small, unregarded yellow sun.

Cartilage Head · « **Reply #20 on:** 24 Mar 2009, 13:07 »

Are you Henry?

michaelicious · « **Reply #21 on:** 24 Mar 2009, 14:09 »

Quote from: negative creep on 24 Mar 2009, 09:18

Where's that from?

"Call me Jonah" is the opening line of Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut.

negative creep · « **Reply #22 on:** 24 Mar 2009, 17:36 »

Ah, thanks! Is it good?

E. Spaceman · « **Reply #23 on:** 24 Mar 2009, 17:46 »

it is excellent

Boro_Bandito · « **Reply #24 on:** 24 Mar 2009, 17:51 »

It's probably my favorite book by him.

Scandanavian War Machine · « **Reply #25 on:** 24 Mar 2009, 18:00 »

you obviously haven't read Man Without A Country because if you had, it would be your favorite.

because it is my favorite by him and everyone has the exact same opinion as me.

Boro_Bandito · « **Reply #26 on:** 24 Mar 2009, 18:01 »

I have not in fact read Man Without A Country, but at your recommendation (and by virtue of having been written by Vonnegut) I'll move it towards the top of my reading list.

Scandanavian War Machine · « **Reply #27 on:** 24 Mar 2009, 18:05 »

get it.

it changed my life. Vonnegut was already a contender for my favorite author before i read that book but that pretty much ensured his place at the top, for me.

Reed · « **Reply #28 on:** 24 Mar 2009, 18:53 »

Quote from: Scandanavian War Machine on 24 Mar 2009, 18:05

it changed my life. Vonnegut was already a contender for my favorite author before i read that book but that pretty much ensured his place at the top, for me.

This! It's a fantastic book, even when compared to his other greats like Cat's Cradle

negative creep · « **Reply #29 on:** 24 Mar 2009, 19:00 »

Okay okay! I'll read them both some time. Soon, hopefully.

fozmo · « **Reply #30 on:** 24 Mar 2009, 20:19 »

"It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen."

"In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit."

"One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish."

David_Dovey · « **Reply #31 on:** 25 Mar 2009, 02:38 »

Man I wish people mentioned what books they were quoting because the ones I do not know I want to read.

Anyway:

"I opened my eyes to see the rat taking a piss in my coffee mug. It was a huge brown bastard; had a body like a turd with legs and beady black eyes full of secret rat knowledge."

Crooked Little Vein by Warren Ellis

negative creep · « **Reply #32 on:** 25 Mar 2009, 07:13 »

Quote from: negative creep on 23 Mar 2009, 16:41

"Call me Ishmael."

It's from Moby Dick.

KickThatBathProf · « **Reply #33 on:** 25 Mar 2009, 09:42 »

No fuckin way

Nodaisho · « **Reply #34 on:** 25 Mar 2009, 16:50 »

"There is no reason good can't triumph over evil, if only angels will get organized along the lines of the mafia."

edit: that's from the aforementioned A Man Without a Country, by Vonnegut.

Inlander · « **Reply #35 on:** 25 Mar 2009, 17:16 »

Dovey, mine was from the Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness.

KickThatBathProf · « **Reply #36 on:** 25 Mar 2009, 17:22 »

Mine was from No Country For Old Men

De_El · « **Reply #37 on:** 25 Mar 2009, 18:16 »

Quote from: De_El on 23 Mar 2009, 18:03

"Dog carcass in alley this morning, tire tread on burst stomach." Watchmen, Moore, Gibson

"My first experience with junk was during the War, around 1944 or 1945." Junky, Burroughs

"Vaughan died yesterday in his last car crash." Crash, J.G. Ballard

"They gave me back my full Christian name and my old clothes and three miserable old Viceroy Golds." How the Hula Girl Sings, Joe Meno

negative creep · « **Reply #38 on:** 25 Mar 2009, 22:37 »

Quote from: KickThatBathProf on 25 Mar 2009, 09:42

No fuckin way

It's true, I'm tellin' ya

RubyTuesday9 · « **Reply #39 on:** 25 Mar 2009, 23:22 »

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife." Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

"Once upon a time and a very good time it was there was a moocow coming down along the road and this moocow that was coming down along the road met a nicens little boy named baby tuckoo..." A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - James Joyce

BeoPuppy · « **Reply #40 on:** 26 Mar 2009, 01:01 »

Lyra and her daemon moved through the darkening Hall, taking care to keep to one side, out of sight of the kitchen.

Jimmy the Squid · « **Reply #41 on:** 26 Mar 2009, 01:12 »

"The regular early morning yell of horror was the sound of Arthur Dent waking up and suddenly remembering where he was." - Life, The Universe and Everything by Douglas Adams.

"It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on Earth has ever produced the expression 'as pretty as an airport'." - The Long, Dark Teatime of the Soul also by Douglas Adams.

"Mommy... is screaming. Her screams are... yummy. Daddy... is next." - Astonishing X-Men by Joss Whedon.

KharBevNor · « **Reply #42 on:** 26 Mar 2009, 09:12 »

"The Sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel"

- William Gibson - Neuromancer

ViolentDove · « **Reply #43 on:** 26 Mar 2009, 21:25 »

What Khar said.

Nodaisho · « **Reply #44 on:** 27 Mar 2009, 00:21 »

Slightly ruined by modern TVs showing blue on dead channels, but still a good one. I heard that Gaiman paid tribute to that at some point in Neverwhere, but I couldn't find it. Anyone know for sure?

jimbunny · « **Reply #45 on:** 30 Mar 2009, 19:39 »

For some inexplicable reason, Bono reads it out loud in the documentary No Maps for These Territories, which is about William Gibson.

scarred · « **Reply #46 on:** 30 Mar 2009, 20:21 »

"Yep... that went well."

Yayniall · « **Reply #47 on:** 09 Apr 2009, 12:53 »

"This drum machine utterly confounds me"

SirJuggles · « **Reply #48 on:** 09 Apr 2009, 14:11 »

This is the bright candlelit room where the lifetimers are stored - shelf upon shelf of them, squat hourglasses, one for every living person, pouting their fine sand from the future into the past.

Mort, by Terry Pratchett

Uber Ritter · « **Reply #49 on:** 09 Apr 2009, 20:45 »

"I am a sick man, I am a wicked man..."

"1    Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita
2    mi ritrovai per una selva oscura
3    ché la diritta via era smarrita."

"Sing, goddess, the rage of Achilles the son of Peleus,
the destructive rage that sent countless ills on the Achaeans..."

THESE FORUMS NOW CLOSED (read only)

Author Topic: Favourite Opening Lines (Read 19875 times)