# One-liners that suggest a great story

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-liners-that-suggest-a-great-story/721606>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [June 4, 2015, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-liners-that-suggest-a-great-story/721606 "2015-06-04T03:48:46Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 8

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**Author:** ![smsaks2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@smsaks2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smsaks2000)\
**Post date:** [August 4, 2015, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-liners-that-suggest-a-great-story/721606/141 "2015-08-04T19:53:48Z")

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“The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.”

I’ve always been amazed by this sentence, how it so perfectly encapsulates the whole of the story to come…

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**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\
**Post date:** [August 4, 2015, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-liners-that-suggest-a-great-story/721606/142 "2015-08-04T20:04:46Z")

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From **Lost Boys** :

Grandpa: "One thing about living in Santa Carla I never could stomach; all the damn vampires. "

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**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\
**Post date:** [August 4, 2015, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-liners-that-suggest-a-great-story/721606/143 "2015-08-04T20:39:20Z")

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He was dead. However, his nose throbbed painfully, which he thought odd, in the circumstances.

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**Author:** ![Abracadebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f04885/32.png) [@Abracadebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Abracadebra)\
**Post date:** [August 4, 2015, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-liners-that-suggest-a-great-story/721606/144 "2015-08-04T20:54:28Z")

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And we’ll fill in the missing colors  
In each other’s paint-by-number dreams

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**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\
**Post date:** [August 4, 2015, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-liners-that-suggest-a-great-story/721606/145 "2015-08-04T21:23:16Z")

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> [@smsaks2000](#):
>
> The Man in Black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.

At least two complete stories from that line.  
Another Stephen King:

(_The scientist is hitchhiking, his car broke down, he’s under a deadline, someone stops to offer him a ride–_)

“Watcha got in the bag, Pops?”

“Buncha dead mice.”

Eventually another car stopped.

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