# Favorite opening lines in fiction. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 9, 2005, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-opening-lines-in-fiction/303070 "2005-05-09T15:52:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Prancer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8dc957/32.png) [@Prancer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prancer)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2005, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-opening-lines-in-fiction/303070/61 "2005-05-10T15:59:11Z")
“I decided to go looking for my mother as a dragon.” – Peter from Necromancer’s Nine by Sheri S. Tepper I enjoyed everything she wrote before 1989, especially The True Game series. Then she went all didactic about environmental issues. Then, starting with Grass, I started hating her books. ---
**Author:** ![Kizarvexius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2005, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-opening-lines-in-fiction/303070/62 "2005-05-10T17:54:22Z")
> [@](#): > > The sun sets in the west. Just about everyone know that. But Sunset Towers faced east. Strange! _The Westing Game_, by Ellen Raskin > [@](#): > > Amerigo Bonasera sat in New York Criminal Court Number 3 and waited for justice; vengeance on the men who had so cruelly hurt his daughter, who had tried to dishonor her. _The Godfather_, by Mario Puzo > [@](#): > > I, Tiberius Claudius Drusus Nero Germanicus This-that-and-the-other (for I shall not trouble you yet with all my titles) who was once, and not so long ago either, known to my friends and relatives and associates as “Claudius the Idiot”, or “That Claudius”, or “Claudius the Stammerer”, or “Clau-Clau-Claudius” or at best as “Poor Uncle Claudius”, am now about to write this strange history of my life; starting from my earliest chilhood and continuing year by year until I reach the fateful point of change where, some eight years ago, at the age of fifty-one, I suddenly found myself caught in what I may call the “golden predicament” from which I have never since become disentangled. _I, Cladius_, by Robert Graves ---
**Author:** ![Skott](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Skott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skott)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2005, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-opening-lines-in-fiction/303070/63 "2005-05-10T18:08:14Z")
“The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.” - The Gunslinger Or is it too obvious? ---
**Author:** ![Beadalin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@Beadalin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beadalin)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2005, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-opening-lines-in-fiction/303070/64 "2005-05-10T19:01:53Z")
Also more than one line, but still: Once when I was six years old I saw a magnificent picture in a book, called True Stories from Nature, about the primeval forest. It was a picture of a boa constrictor in the act of swallowing an animal. Here is a copy of the drawing. – _The Little Prince_, by Antoine de Saint-Exupery ---
**Author:** ![vibrotronica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/a9a28c/32.png) [@vibrotronica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vibrotronica)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2005, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-opening-lines-in-fiction/303070/65 "2005-05-10T19:22:33Z")
> [@Thomas Pynchon](#): > > A screaming comes across the sky. it has happened before, but there is nothing to compare it to now. _Gravity’s Rainbow_ ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2005, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-opening-lines-in-fiction/303070/66 "2005-05-10T21:42:44Z")
> [@Case Sensitive](#): > > “If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born and what my lousy childhood was like and how my parents were occupied **and is anyone really reading this** and all before they had me, and all that _David Copperfield_ kind of crap, but I don’t feel lke going into it, if you want to know the truth.” I _knew_ you weren’t paying attention. ---
**Author:** ![Stark\_Raven\_Mad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Stark\_Raven\_Mad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stark_Raven_Mad)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2005, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-opening-lines-in-fiction/303070/67 "2005-05-10T22:00:35Z")
> [@Case Sensitive](#): > > I _knew_ you weren’t paying attention. That’s funny in a very embarrassing sort of way, ya know? ---
**Author:** ![SnakesCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4af34b/32.png) [@SnakesCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SnakesCatLady)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2005, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-opening-lines-in-fiction/303070/68 "2005-05-10T22:18:48Z")
“We need you to kill a man” - **Robert A. Heinlein** , The Cat Who Walks Through Walls ---
**Author:** ![CBCD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc348/32.png) [@CBCD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CBCD)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2005, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-opening-lines-in-fiction/303070/69 "2005-05-11T01:23:32Z")
“When Augustus came out on the porch the blue pigs were eating a rattlesnake - not a very big one.” [Lonesome Dove](http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/067168390X/ref=sib_rdr_ex/103-0373359-9544657?%5Fencoding=UTF8&p=S00D#reader-page), by Larry McMurtry ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2005, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-opening-lines-in-fiction/303070/70 "2005-05-11T02:06:56Z")
> [@](#): > > I would like to limit this to fiction with some literary merit, as opposed to genre fiction. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![dotchan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@dotchan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dotchan)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2005, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-opening-lines-in-fiction/303070/71 "2005-05-11T02:15:13Z")
“I, Rikudo Koshi, hereby give my permission…” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2005, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-opening-lines-in-fiction/303070/72 "2005-05-11T05:01:12Z")
I second the opening for War of the Worlds. How 'bout: “The primroses were over.” from Watership Down by Richard Adams. Didn’t really appreciate it until I got to the end of the epilogue where the last sentence created a nice indirect cycle. This book also has one of my favorite all time last sentences (if you don’t count the epilogue): “Underground, the story continued”. It just works on so many levels. ---
**Author:** ![Petey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f1d935/32.png) [@Petey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Petey)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2005, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-opening-lines-in-fiction/303070/73 "2005-05-13T16:19:21Z")
I always get the shakes before a jump. **Starship Troopers, Heinlein** ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2005, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-opening-lines-in-fiction/303070/74 "2005-05-13T16:45:19Z")
“A Saturday afternoon in November was approaching the time of twilight, and the vast tract of unenclosed wild known as Egdon Heath embrowned itself moment by moment.” _Return of the Native_ by Thomas Hardy. Of course, it’s not just this opening sentence, but the whole opening chapter, that creates such a vivid sense of place. “‘To be born again,’ sang Gibreel Farishta tumbing down from the heavens, ‘first you have to die.’” _The Satanic Verses_ by Salman Rushdie. "My desert-island, all-time, top-five most memorable split-ups, in chronological order: 1. Allison Ashworth 2. Penny Hardwick 3. Jackie Allen 4. Charlie Nicholson 5. Sarah Kendrew." _High Fidelity_ by Nick Hornby. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2005, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-opening-lines-in-fiction/303070/75 "2005-05-13T16:57:10Z")
L. Sprague de Camp was always good for a killer opening line. He quotes two of his own in his Science Fiction Writer’s Handbook. I’m semi-quoting from memory: “The way Smith got involved with the naked princess was like this…” (Don’t recall the book) and “Sir Fitz-Hugh raised his visor and wiped the sweat from his brow under his helmet and continued riding his horse down the banks of the Hudson River.” That’s from **Divide and Rule** , I think. ---
**Author:** ![rockle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/73ab20/32.png) [@rockle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rockle)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2005, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-opening-lines-in-fiction/303070/76 "2005-05-13T17:03:42Z")
“You think you know how this story is going to end, but you don’t.” - Christopher Moore, _Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal_ “All this happened, more or less.” - Kurt Vonnegut, _Slaughterhouse-Five_ ---
**Author:** ![E.Thorp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@E.Thorp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E.Thorp)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2005, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-opening-lines-in-fiction/303070/77 "2005-05-13T17:32:26Z")
In addition to the Joyce, García Márquez, and Austen already cited, let me add: “The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness.” Vladimir Nabokov, **Speak, Memory** “For whom is the funhouse fun? Perhaps for lovers. For Ambrose it is _a place of fear and confusion_.” John Barth, “Lost in the Funhouse” “In the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth.” **Genesis 1:1** ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2005, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-opening-lines-in-fiction/303070/78 "2005-05-13T22:08:55Z")
> [@](#): > > Current theories on the creation of the Universe state that, if it was created at all and didn’t just start, as it were, unofficially, it came into being between ten and twenty thousand million years ago. Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett ---
**Author:** ![cher3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2005, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-opening-lines-in-fiction/303070/79 "2005-05-13T22:22:59Z")
Or we have Pratchett by himself, in _Lords and Ladies_: “In the beginning there was nothing, which exploded.” ---
**Author:** ![Loopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loopus/32/15343_2.png) [@Loopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopus)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2005, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-opening-lines-in-fiction/303070/80 "2005-05-13T22:39:42Z")
> [@Mr. Goob](#): > > It was a dark and stormy night > > I was always hoping Snoopy would finish that book. He did! I found it [here](http://www.peanutscollectorclub.com/peantfaq.txt) at 4.12. (But what about the king?) My contribution, from _Don Quixote_: > [@](#): > > At a village of La Mancha, whose name I do not wish to remember, there lived a little while ago one of those gentlemen who are wont to keep a lance in the rack, an old buckler, a lean horse, and a swift greyhound. It’s the “whose name I do not wish to remember” that gets me. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-opening-lines-in-fiction/303070.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-opening-lines-in-fiction/303070.md?page=5)